UniCredit today announced, that it has agreed to enter into an exclusive strategic alliance with Kepler Capital Markets S.A. (Kepler) for Cash Equity research and Execution services for Western European Equities.
UniCredit selected Kepler as its exclusive partner for Cash Equity research and Execution services based on the strength of Kepler's research product and distribution platform.
Founded in 1997, Kepler has grown into the leading independent provider of equity research and cash equity execution services in Continental Europe. Kepler´s multi-local model operates from 8 European cities plus New York. Equity distribution reaches a global client base of over 500 institutional investors and is handled by 59 sales people and 21 sales traders.
Kepler will support UniCredit's Equity Capital Market (ECM) business in the areas of Equity research and provision of analyst reports for Western European ECM and all other UniCredit units. Kepler will also handle the exclusive distribution of Western European ECM transactions worldwide.
Kepler's broad and award-winning research coverage of 460 stocks by 50 analysts is highly ranked in nine sectors in the latest Extel survey, in addition to being 6th in "Pan European small and mid cap", and matches perfectly the needs of our large multi-national as well as mid cap issuers.
As part of the alliance, Kepler will add coverage of an additional 48 stocks, as a result Kepler will have the most extensive research coverage footprint in Continental Europe (ex Scandinavia).
Jean Pierre Mustier, Head of UniCredit Corporate & Investment Banking: "The strategic alliance with Kepler will secure the distribution of UniCredit's Western European ECM transactions to investors worldwide, by giving us access to a very strong institutional client base through the existing systems and operations of Kepler. We are confident that our issuer clients will benefit greatly from Kepler's outstanding expertise in cash equities research and distribution."
Laurent Quirin, CEO of Kepler Capital Markets: "We are proud to be associated with one of Europe's leading banks. We see this strategic alliance as an excellent opportunity to broaden our research footprint and our new issues distribution in conjunction with UniCredit."
Jean Pierre Mustier added: "Our new strategic alliance with Kepler in Western Europe is a key step in the ongoing process of concentrating on our competitive strengths and reallocating resources to core client franchises. As part of these priorities we will focus on providing our issuer clients in Western Europe with the full range of ECM services and products, which is a UniCredit core business. For Central and Eastern European markets, UniCredit, as the largest bank in the region, will continue to enhance its equity research, strong local and global distribution, execution services as well as ECM activities".
The strategic alliance is subject to regulatory approval.
London/ Munich, 15 November 2011
Contact: Claudia Bresgen, 0049 89 378-25554; claudia.bresgen@unicreditgroup.de