NEW YORK, Aug. 31, 2016 /PRNewswire/
-- AllianceBernstein L.P. ("AB"), a leading global investment
firm with $492 billion in assets
under management, announced today that it has entered into a
definitive agreement to acquire RASL, which is jointly owned by
Ramius LLC (the investment division of Cowen Group, Inc. [NASDAQ:
COWN]) and the two principals of RASL, Stuart Davies and Vikas
Kapoor. With more than $3
billion in assets under management as of July 1, 2016, RASL offers a range of customized
alternative investment and advisory solutions to a global
institutional client base. These solutions provide access to return
sources that can complement an investor's existing alternative
strategy, and offer the benefits of improved liquidity, reduced
cost and greater transparency to overall portfolio construction.
The acquisition adds new investment capabilities in factor-based
and Alternative Risk Premia solutions to AB and expands the firm's
offerings in the multi-asset and alternatives investment space.
Stuart Davies and Vikas Kapoor
will join AB, along with investment and support team members of
RASL.
"The RASL acquisition represents a natural extension of our
factor completion strategies for multi-manager equity portfolios,"
said Vadim Zlotnikov, Co-Head of
Multi-Asset Solutions at AB. "They bring an excellent reputation
among the most sophisticated institutional investors for their
ability to construct and manage a wide range of alternative
investment solutions utilizing alternative risk premia and other
factors based investments. And they share AB's investment
discipline and cultural mindset: research-driven,
solutions-oriented, accountable and client-focused."
Stuart Davies, Co-CEO of RASL, added, "We are very excited
to join AB, a firm with a history of research excellence, and
impressive global distribution capabilities and robust
infrastructure that will enhance our ability to continue developing
customized alternative solutions that meet the complex investment
needs institutional clients face today."
"As Ramius continues to expand its platform of single strategy
offerings, the RASL team deserves the opportunity to join a
platform that will allow them to continue to build their
specialized offering in alternatives portfolio construction and
optimization," said Thomas Strauss,
Chairman of Ramius. "We are proud to have helped develop and scale
the RASL team and we are extremely pleased to see that this
business has found a home within a quality firm like
AB."
Freeman & Co. acted as exclusive financial advisor to RASL
and Cowen Group, Inc. Ropes & Gray acted as counsel to Cowen
Group and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz acted as counsel to
AB.
The closing is expected to occur by September 30, 2016 and is subject to customary
closing conditions.
About AB's Multi-Asset Solutions Group
AB's
Multi-Asset Solutions Group is a dedicated team of more than 25
investment professionals that utilizes its deep capital markets
expertise, research insights and a full range of risk/return
sources as building blocks to create integrated multi-asset
investment solutions tailored to the needs of each client. AB's
Multi-Asset Solutions group has approximately $117 billion in assets under management as of
June 30, 2016 and includes
target-date retirement solutions, tactical allocation strategies,
and smart-beta and index strategies.
About AB
AB is a leading global investment management
firm that offers high-quality research and diversified investment
services to institutional investors, individuals and private wealth
clients in major world markets.
At June 30, 2016, AB Holding owned
approximately 35.9% of the issued and outstanding AB Units and AXA,
a worldwide leader in financial protection, owned an approximate
63.8% economic interest in AB.
Additional information about AB may be found on our website,
www.abglobal.com.
About Ramius
Ramius is an alternative investment
platform offering innovative products and solutions across the
liquidity spectrum to institutional and private clients. Founded in
1994, Ramius offers investors access to strategies to meet their
unique needs including activism, healthcare royalties, merger
arbitrage, real estate, event credit, long/short equity,
consumer-focused long/short equity, global macro and managed
futures.
About Cowen Group
Cowen Group, Inc. is a diversified
financial services firm and, together with its consolidated
subsidiaries, provides alternative asset management, investment
banking, research, sales and trading and prime brokerage services
through its two business segments: Ramius and its affiliates make
up the Company's alternative investment segment, while Cowen and
Company and its affiliates make up the Company's broker-dealer
segment. Ramius provides alternative asset management solutions to
a global client base and manages a significant portion of Cowen's
proprietary capital. Cowen and Company and its affiliates offer
industry focused investment banking for growth-oriented companies,
domain knowledge-driven research, a sales and trading platform for
institutional investors and a comprehensive suite of prime
brokerage services. Founded in 1918, the firm is headquartered in
New York and has offices
worldwide. For additional information, visit www.cowen.com.
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SOURCE AllianceBernstein L.P.