CIMB Investment, Kepler Cheuvreux to cross-distribute equity research

PETALING JAYA: CIMB Investment Bank Bhd and Europe's Kepler Cheuvreux have signed a cooperation agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cross-distribute equity research in both their respective regional markets in Asia and Europe. They will also collaborate in creating a single global program trading platform.
CIMB, one of Asia's largest investment banks and Kepler Cheuvreux, a leading independent brokerage firm ranked within the top ten for European equities, will work together and leverage on each others' strengths in regional research and execution.
The partnership could also be extended to other areas such as equity capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, retail as well as private banking.
This will include Kepler Cheuvreux staff taking up positions in CIMB's office in Hong Kong to market European equities to Asian clients.
In the UK, access to Asian equities will be provided through CIMB sales personnel as well as sales traders already located in London, while the creation of a new desk in Paris will connect continental European clients with the Asian market.
Kepler Cheuvreux CEO Laurent Quirin said, "Our detailed modelling indicates that this potential partnership should provide an important revenue opportunity with limited incremental costs on both sides. Kepler Cheuvreux already benefits from a leading position in European secondary and primary equities with UK and European clients. We now plan to open up these deep-rooted client relationships to equity products from strong partners based in other regions. I know that CIMB shares a similar philosophy on inter-regional partnerships for their Equities business."
Subject to the appropriate board approvals and compliance and regulatory due diligence, the cooperation agreement is expected to be operational from Q4, 2015.
Both companies have an extremely extensive research footprint with 750 stocks under research coverage for CIMB (over 1,000 stocks with partnerships) and 675 stocks for Kepler Cheuvreux.