The firm called the launch “an important milestone” for its business as it will enable greater penetration in the fast-growing Middle Eastern markets.

William Ashworth and Yasmine Rassem have been selected to build out the franchise from Bernstein’s Hong Kong and London offices, respectively. Ashworth has been appointed managing director, global execution sales and Rassem has been appointed director, global research sales.

Bernstein currently covers MENA listed equities in the energy, financials and logistics sectors. The firm confirmed that it intends to expand this coverage for the benefit of corporate and investor clients.

The new office joins Societe Generale’s existing franchise that has been operating in the Middle East region since 1997.

Read more – The new kid on the block – a closer look at ‘Bernstein’

The news follows the recent collaboration between AllianceBernstein and Societe Generale which saw the launch of a new joint venture in April focusing on global cash equities and equity research.

Named Bernstein, the joint venture was originally announced in November 2022.

Bernstein provides institutional investors, corporates and financial institutions with investment insights into North America, European and Asia Pacific equity markets, alongside liquidity access and global trading technology.

The joint venture enables Societe Generale to offer its clients a suite of global services across the equities value-chain, ranging from equity and macro research to agency execution, equity derivatives, prime brokerage and equity capital markets offerings.

The post Bernstein opens new Dubai office as part of MENA expansion appeared first on The TRADE.

The new JV is set to enable Societe Generale to offer clients a suite of global services across the equities value-chain, ranging from equity and macro research to agency execution, equity derivatives, prime brokerage and equity capital markets offerings.

“With high-quality research on over 1,000 stocks, Bernstein is a pure-play provider of trusted research and execution that helps investors generate insight, alpha and exceptional value for their clients around the world,” explained Hatem Mustapha, co-head of global markets activities at Societe Generale in a social media post last week. 

The team

The JV, first reported back in November 2022, is set to operate across 16 countries, with key hubs in: Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New York, and Paris. Due to the global scale, the new entity has understandably led to a rejig of the operational set up at Societe Generale and AllianceBernstein only where there was a duplication of offerings.

Read more: AllianceBernstein and Societe Generale to partner on cash equities push

Combining these two entities across Europe meant that potentially hard decisions were on the table when it came to bringing the similar platforms and offerings together.

This combination was a particular focus when it came to research and trading, and primarily the case for the UK team, The TRADE understands. However, on the trading side disruption was reportedly minimal. 

The JV now has one unique trading team covering both high touch and low touch per region – in the US, Europe, and Asia, respectively.

In the US, most of this team hails from Alliance Bernstein, The TRADE has learnt, whilst in Asia and in Europe the teams are a 50/50 split of both Societe Generale and Alliance Bernstein’s existing teams.

In a joint announcement earlier this month, the two firms stated that the ultimate objective is for Societe Generale to eventually own 100% of both entities after five years with AllianceBernstein exiting – an arrangement which had been on the table since day one, The TRADE understands. 

Senior executives for the JV have already been announced, with previous chief executive of Bernstein Research Services, Robert van Brugge, having been named chief executive of Bernstein and Stephane Loiseau, previously head of Societe Generale’s cash equities business, appointed deputy chief executive.

The priorities

Speaking to The TRADE about the main focus for the JV going forward, Loiseau says that from Bernstein’s perspective, the priority is equity prime brokerage.

“It is definitely the biggest wallet in equities. When you look at the global picture, cash equities is a small sliver in comparison and currently the two are connected so now we’ll finally be in a position where we can build that as a product globally.”

Loiseau added that the joint venture provides the opportunity to be relevant globally and across the bigger sway of the equity chain.

“Societe Generale has obviously very strong expertise in derivatives. So, once you put these two things together (research and cash equities with equity derivatives and prime services) you have the scope and expertise to offer world class content (e.g. research) and a leading global trading platform.”

Read more: When it comes to desk set-ups, buy-siders are readjusting how derivatives fit in

The combination of the two offerings poses an important question as to the migration of the back office and trading systems.

Quant trading and algos are the key focus for the new entity going forward, The TRADE understands. Bernstein’s setup is based on Societe Generale providing clearing and settlement services, however, both firms’ trading systems are set to be kept in place for the time being.

A review process is expected over the coming months and years.

“Certainly, operating two trading platforms is not necessarily the best from a cost perspective. But, with this approach, we’ll be able to do that with full knowledge about the advantages and disadvantages of each platform […] We feel that keeping the two IT stacks was the best option to minimise disruption for clients,” explains Loiseau.

In terms of the JV’s technological focus for the time being, algos are the key focal point. Bernstein is aiming to grow their footprint and reportedly plans are in place to launch two algo stacks in the next couple of months.

Furthermore, Loiseau tells The TRADE that one of the key strategic differentiators for Bernstein will be from the quant trading perspective. The firms intend to leverage their newly combined large team of quants and developers – “we’re much more relevant than each entity was separately”.

The clientele

While AllianceBernstein and Societe Generale had a previously extensive overlap in their offerings , when it comes to client-base, there is notably much less commonality between the two businesses.

While AllianceBernstein typically services long-only traditional funds, Societe Generale’s client base has historically focused more on the quantitative and hedge fund type firm. 

Speaking to the geographical reach, Loiseau shares that during the analysis stage, the firms did not see client overlaps in the same geography with some instances demonstrating that Societe Generale did European business with one client while AllianceBernstein covered the US and Asian business already: “We didn’t see a great deal of overlap from the client perspective and weren’t really sharing clients on the same product.” 

When it comes to the global footprint, geographically, the key areas of focus for expansion are Asia, The Middle East and North Africa, The TRADE understands.

Read more: AllianceBernstein becomes latest buy-side to set up shop in the Dubai International Financial Centre

“The two client bases are very complementary in terms of where we want to grow. First and foremost, it is about making sure that we cross sell to these various client bases,” concluded Loiseau.

The post The new kid on the block – a closer look at ‘Bernstein’ appeared first on The TRADE.

Appital aims to bring greater transparency to the equity markets and give the buy-side access to deal flow they previously might not have had exposure to through improved liquidity discovery and price formation in illiquid equity positions.

Flow originated on the platform can now be executed through Bernstein.

“Our ethos is focused on the institutional market and we aim to align with the interests of our buyside clients,” said Toby Bayliss, head of European electronic trading at Bernstein Autonomous.

“Appital provides an innovative, automated and more efficient way for clients to source and access liquidity, enhancing our primary role as an execution broker.”

The platform claims to have over 30 asset managers with $30 trillion in assets under management preparing to join at launch, which is expected to take place later this year.

Appital said these asset managers were instrumental in selecting the nominated broker list and that once onboarded they would be able to tailor their exposure to deal flow and nominate the brokers for execution.

“We have been working with Bernstein to develop the platform from the early development phase,” said Mark Badyra, chief executive of Appital.

“Asset managers told us they would like to use Bernstein to execute this type of flow because of their independent market position and strong research focus. Our collaboration gives our shared client base the functionality to find new sources of liquidity which will be unique compared to other technologically driven platforms.”

The platform has formed several alliances ahead of its launch in a bid to bolster its offering, including launching a desktop app on OpenFin’s system and integrating with FlexTrade’s execution management system.

The post Bernstein latest broker to join Appital ahead of European launch appeared first on The TRADE.