AXA forms Australian Alliance

AXA Asia Pacific Holdings and Alliance Capital Management have signed an agreement to merge investment operations in Australia and New Zealand.

AXA Asia Pacific Holdings and Alliance Capital Management have signed an agreement to merge investment operations in Australia and New Zealand.

As revealed exclusively in Money Management earlier this month, AXA’s global parent com-pany already owns 64 per cent of the US based Alliance after increasing its stake from 57 per cent in June.

Under the terms of the deal, two companies will be formed to be called Alliance Capital Man-agement Australia and Alliance Capital Management New Zealand. AXA and Alliance will each own 50 per cent of the equity of each new company and will have equal representation on the boards.

Alliance will have day to day responsibility for operational management of the companies, which will manage $23 billion worth of assets - consisting $17 billion of AXA assets and $6 billion of Alliance assets. AXA will be responsible for distribution, product development and marketing in retail markets under the AXA brand. Alliance Capital Management Australia and New Zealand will be responsible for institutional and sub-advisory funds using the Alliance brands.

“Asset management is increasingly a global activity and this restructuring of our operations in Australia and New Zealand will enable us to leverage the scale and capability of Alliance Capi-tal, which is part of the global AXA group,” says AXA Asia Pacific chief executive Les Owen.

Alliance chief executive Bruce Calvert says the move will leverage both group’s specialities.

"The combined strengths of Alliance Capital's superior long-term investment performance across a broad range of investment disciplines, and AXA's experience in insurance, savings and invest-ment product design, marketing and distribution should provide an outstanding platform for in-vestment management solution for Australian and New Zealand based retail clients," he says.