Cowen has completed its acquisition of Convergex Group for a total consideration of USD100.7 million (including seller transaction expenses) and is comprised of USD53.1 million in cash and USD47.6 million in Cowen common stock.
Effective today, Convergex has been renamed Cowen Execution Services and Convergex Limited, its London-based brokerage, has been renamed Cowen Execution Services Limited.
“The acquisition of Convergex enhances our position as a leader in high quality research and superior global execution capabilities,” says Peter A Cohen (pictured), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cowen. “This transaction is another step forward in Cowen’s overall growth strategy. Integrating the best of Convergex with Cowen shows Cowen’s commitment to providing its combined client base with innovative and differentiated capabilities. As an organisation focused on helping our clients outperform, we look forward to showcasing our comprehensive service offerings in the months ahead. Our team has worked extensively to ensure clients experience the same high-quality service that they have come to expect from our organisations.”
“With the closing of the acquisition, Cowen has become a leading independent, full service, agency equity trading platform that is also a key equity market liquidity provider,” says Jeffrey M Solomon, President of Cowen. “We have enhanced our capabilities in electronic trading with a broad suite of non-conflicted trading products that can source liquidity across fragmented markets and drive substantial value creation for our collective clients, as well as extended our capabilities in prime services and clearing. We are also one of few firms offering sophisticated research sales and non-research based global execution capabilities as well as full-service investment banking.”
As previously disclosed, combined pro forma brokerage execution revenues were over USD400 million in 2016, which positions Cowen as a clear leader in U.S. trading volume and expands Cowen’s reach to 108 countries around the globe, including China. Cowen continues to expect the acquisition to be accretive to economic income per share and return on tangible common equity in 2018.
Cowen recently unveiled its new corporate identity across its business segments which reflects the firm’s commitment to helping its clients Outperform. Cowen’s identity emphasises the firm’s Vision to always put its clients’ needs first; Tenacity to challenge the norms in an effort to develop innovative offerings, and; Empathy when interacting with its internal and external partners (www.cowen.com).
