AllianceBernstein Launches New Branding Initiative

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

Andrea Prochniak, Investors, 212.756.4542, andrea.prochniak@abglobal.com, or Jonathan Freedman, Media, 212.823.2687, jonathan.freedman@abglobal.com