PARIS (Reuters) - Societe Generale, France's third-biggest listed bank, and U.S. asset manager AllianceBernstein ( AB ) officially launched their joint venture in the cash equities and equity research businesses, the two companies said on Tuesday.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

The move, initiated by SocGen's CEO Slawomir Krupa shortly before he took the reins of the French bank, is part of the company's efforts to keep up with bigger competitors such as BNP Paribas in France and leading Wall Street banks Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

CONTEXT

The lender is hoping the joint venture will help it gain more clients, notably in the realm of initial public offerings (IPOs), and expand beyond its core markets in Europe.

It follows French rival BNP Paribas, which expanded its equity research house Exane in the United States after the euro zone's biggest lender took it over in 2021.

KEY QUOTES

"This joint venture illustrates Societe Generale's capability to develop innovative pathways to further expand our client offering as we increase our value proposition for the benefit of our investor and issuer clients, leverage synergies within our Group, and grow our revenues sustainably," Krupa said.

"Through this joint venture, Bernstein can continue to build out a cash equities and research business that seeks to set the standard for delivering global investment expertise and an even stronger set of products and services for global clients," AllianceBernstein ( AB ) CEO Seth Bernstein said.

THE DETAILS

Named Bernstein, the venture employs more than 750 people and has two separate legal entities, one headquartered in New York for the American region and the other in London for the European and Asian regions, they said. Robert van Brugge, who previously headed AllianceBernstein's ( AB ) research unit, is appointed CEO of Bernstein, while Stephane Loiseau, who led SocGen's cash equities business, becomes his deputy.