Fundsters interested in the fate of AllianceBernstein [see profile] may want to take a look at Bloomberg or BusinessWeek. This week Charles Stein penned a report (one version on Bloomberg and then another via its magazine sibling) on the efforts of Peter Kraus, chairman and CEO, to reverse AllianceBernstein's fortunes after the financial crisis. One version highlights the $52 million pay package AllianceBernstein used to bring Kraus on-board in December 2008.

Peter Kraus AllianceBernstein Chairman and CEO

"Asset management companies aren't built overnight and they don't decline overnight," Kraus told Stein. "What we are doing is executing. We are out there hitting singles."

It seems AllianceBernstein's woes are more institutional than retail in nature -- according to the firm, on February 28 57 percent of its assets were institutional, 27 percent retail and the remaining 16 percent high net worth. (Stein notes that investors (particularly institutional equity investors) pulled $126 billion from AllianceBernstein between December 31, 2008 and December 31, 2010. Kraus expects future returns to "be consistent and better than the competition," though Stein worries that AllianceBernstein's recent performance has been rough. And Cogent Research principal Christy White claimed that AllianceBernstein came in last in a brand loyalty survey of institutional investors.

Mutual fund industry consultant Burt Greenwald, AllianceBernstein spokesman John Meyers, Morningstar analyst Katie Rushkewicz, Macquarie USA analyst Roger Smith, Gabelli analyst Macrae Sykes, and Axa Financial [Axa owns most of the publicly-traded AllianceBernstein] spokesman Chris Winans all weighed in for the article. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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