By Tommy Wilkes and Mathieu Rosemain
LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) -The three co-founders of AllianceBernstein's Autonomous research unit have quit, ahead of the U.S. investment firm merging its equities business with French bank Societe Generale (EPA:SOGN).
Stuart Graham, a highly regarded banks analyst who joined AllianceBernstein in 2019 after it bought the financial sector-focused research firm he co-founded, is leaving in March to take a six-month break from work, he told Reuters.
The other two co-founders of Autonomous, Ed Allchin and Manus Costello, are also leaving, Graham said in an email.
Costello was named last week as Standard Chartered (LON:STAN)'s global head of investor relations, starting in April, while Allchin will hand over his responsibilities by April. Reuters has emailed Allchin and Costello for comment.
The departures will be a blow to SocGen and AllianceBernstein as they look to close their joint venture, which combines SocGen's expertise in equities trading with Bernstein's in research, in the coming months.
Announced in late 2022, the deal was expected to close by the end of 2023, but in an amendment to its registration document last August SocGen said it expected it to close in the first half of 2024, citing pending regulatory approvals.
AllianceBernstein did not respond to a request for comment. SocGen had no immediate comment.
Graham has been one of the best-known bank analysts since he founded Autonomous in 2009 after leading European banks equity research at Merrill Lynch. He previously covered banks at JP Morgan and HSBC (LON:HSBA).
Under the deal, SocGen is taking an initial 51% interest in the partnership, which will carry the Bernstein name, with an option to take 100% after five years.
CEO Slawomir Krupa is trying to revive SocGen's fortunes as it lags rivals and the bank hopes the merger will help it compete better with rival BNP Paribas (EPA:BNPP) and expand beyond its core markets in Europe.
Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge told clients in a previously unreported memo in December that Geoff Elliott would take over from Costello as Director of Research, Andreas Vollmer from Allchin as Head of European Sales and Access, and Chris Cant as head of European Banks Strategy from Graham.
Autonomous, which has a team of more than 60, will continue to operate as a separate subscription product with its own research team once the joint venture is launched this year, according to the memo seen by Reuters.