NEW YORK, Jan. 20, 2015 /PRNewswire/
-- AllianceBernstein L.P. ("AllianceBernstein"), a global
investment management firm with US $474
billion in assets under management, today announced changes
to its brand identity and messaging to better reflect the evolution
of the firm. Over the past few years, the company has expanded
across asset classes and markets, finding dynamic new ways to solve
investors' challenges. Today, the firm is able to move its clients'
vision forward like never before by offering a unique combination
of industry-leading talent, an integrated global structure, a
culture of collaboration, intense client focus and the ability to
deliver differentiated results. This new brand initiative, Ahead
of Tomorrow, captures both the company's progress and its
unique approach to innovating and delivering for clients. The new
brand name, "AB," and logo better embody the firm's distinct
offerings and unified culture.
"Our firm has evolved significantly over the past few years to
better anticipate and meet our clients' needs. While holding firm
to our core strengths – research excellence, investment discipline,
high conviction, differentiated insights and intellectual curiosity
– we've also expanded our offerings, added talent and strengthened
our culture of collaboration and innovation," said Peter Kraus, Chairman and CEO. "Now we have a
bold and dynamic new brand that reflects AB's breadth, strength,
diversity and ingenuity, and how we use these unique traits to keep
our clients Ahead of Tomorrow."
AB's Evolution to Better Meet Clients' Needs
This brand refresh is the next natural step in an evolution of
the firm that began in early 2009 with the launch of a long-term
strategy focused on delivering for clients through persistent
investment performance, a more diverse and global business,
innovative new offerings and stronger financials. AB has made
steady progress on this strategy and is experiencing positive
momentum across the business today. In Fixed Income, constant
innovation and strong performance have been key drivers of the
firm's global asset growth, with nearly 90% of fixed-income assets
in services outperforming their benchmarks for the three-year
period through December 31, 2014. In
Equities, the firm broadened the platform to incorporate services
that address clients' needs for downside risk protection, income
and stable alpha, while at the same time remaining committed to its
high conviction investment discipline. These changes are paying
off, with nearly 75% of AB's active equity assets in outperforming
services for the 3-year period ending December 31, 2014. Furthermore, AB has built an
Alternatives business that today has AUM of nearly $23 billion and includes both liquid and illiquid
offerings.
To help keep its clients ahead of tomorrow, AB has enhanced many
of its traditional services and introduced innovative new offerings
across the globe. In 2014, the firm:
- Closed on its acquisition of CPH Capital, a global core equity
manager.
- Extended its existing fixed income platform to build out
illiquid credit capabilities with new infrastructure debt and
direct middle market lending teams.
- Launched a multi-manager target-date fund ("TDF") series in
partnership with Morningstar.
- Rolled out Retirement Bridge, an innovative new retirement
income solution for the UK market.
- Expanded the array of client offerings in its private wealth
management business with a range of new targeted services that
exploit return opportunities in areas like US financials,
recovering Europe and frontier
markets – attracting a combined $1.2
billion in new assets in the past year.
- Continued to grow its sell-side business revenues in
Europe and Asia by double-digits, establishing Bernstein
as a firm that can deliver truly global research and trading
capabilities to clients at a time when the rest of the industry is
disinvesting.
AB has also leveraged its extensive and integrated global
footprint of research, investment and client-facing professionals
in 22 countries and 46 locations to broaden the firm's presence and
profile:
- In Taiwan, AB is the largest
offshore fund manager with a retail market share of more than
15%.
- In Japan, AB has played a
leading role in helping Japanese investors to adopt TDF savings
vehicles, and, several regional banks, including one of
Japan's largest online brokerage
houses, have now signed up to sell AB's TDFs.
- In the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, AB has solidified its
position as a leading fixed income manager, winning numerous Lipper
performance and innovation awards for top European retail funds
including Global High Yield, Emerging Markets Debt and European
Income.
- In Latin America, AB has
experienced strong sales in newer strategies such as Select US
Long/Short and Short Duration High Yield that have contributed to
the firm's more regionally diverse sales mix.
Digital Redesign & Global Ad Campaign
To support the new brand, AB has redesigned its web properties,
which includes a more mobile friendly layout and introduced a
streamlined new corporate website address (www.abglobal.com) that
better reflects the global nature of its business. In addition,
today AB launched advertisements across the globe to announce the
brand changes. In the U.S., a new campaign brings together all of
what AB offers and explores how each of the firm's offerings share
a common theme: they are built for tomorrow and "Made Ready" for
what's next. This creative concept seeks to encapsulate the ways in
which AB has expanded its expertise and investment insight,
increased its collaboration across asset classes, created
specialized teams and enhanced its offerings for clients by
building on both new strengths and decades of investment expertise.
Outside the U.S., targeted regional advertising campaigns will run
throughout the year in leading print and digital
publications.
"Over the last six years we've developed dynamic new ways to
solve our clients' challenges. Everything we do – research,
execution, thought leadership and the solutions we provide – is
designed to keep our clients Ahead of Tomorrow. Our new advertising
campaign captures this perfectly," said Robert Keith, Head of Global Client Group.
"We're excited to tell the story of AB's evolution and how we'll
keep meeting the needs of our clients for years to come."
Note to Editors:
Going forward, AB will have
two new brand identities. The corporate entity, institutional and
retail businesses will be referred to as AB. Sanford C. Bernstein, the sell-side business,
and Bernstein Private Wealth Management will be referred to as
Bernstein in the media in instances where the logo appears and as
AB Bernstein where it does not. The legal name of the firm and its
entities will not change.
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
clients in major world markets.
As of December 31, 2014,
AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. owned approximately 36.9% of the
issued and outstanding AB Units and AXA, one of the largest global
financial services organizations, owned an approximate 62.7%
economic interest in AB.
Additional information about AB may be found on our website,
www.abglobal.com.
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SOURCE AllianceBernstein