Kepler Capital Markets enters into a strategic alliance with UniCredit

Kepler has agreed to enter into an exclusive strategic alliance* with UniCredit, a leading European bank, for Cash Equity research and execution services for Western European equities. The rationale for the strategic alliance is that UniCredit has decided to appoint Kepler to support UniCredit’s Equity Capital Markets (ECM) business in the following areas:

• Equity research and provision of analyst reports for Western European ECM and all other UniCredit units
• Exclusive distribution of Western European ECM transactions worldwide

UniCredit selected Kepler as its exclusive partner for cash equity research and execution services due to the strength of Kepler’s research product and distribution platform. Kepler is convinced that its broad and award-winning research coverage of 460 stocks by 50 analysts will help UniCredit to maintain and strengthen its relationships with its corporate borrowers and issuers.

This strategic alliance has been designed to combine UniCredit’s lending and ECM relationships with Kepler’s research expertise and long-standing relationships with institutional investors. As part of the alliance, Kepler will add coverage of an additional 48 stocks which means that Kepler will have the most extensive research coverage footprint in Continental Europe (ex Scandinavia).

It should be noted that the alliance does not include other asset classes such as equity derivatives or fixed income.

Jean-Pierre Mustier, Head of CIB at UniCredit, stated ‘We have decided to create a strategic alliance for Western European equities with Kepler because of Kepler’s outstanding reputation for the quality of its equity research and distribution. There are important similarities between our two companies: both UniCredit and Kepler share a multi-local strategy and both firms share a strong European heritage. We are convinced that UniCredit’s clients will benefit from Kepler’s expertise and strengths.’

Laurent Quirin, CEO of Kepler, adds ‘We are proud to be associated with one of Europe’s leading banks. We see this strategic alliance as an opportunity to broaden our research footprint and to develop our new issues distribution in conjunction with UniCredit.’