“We are going to see a large consolidation in the asset management industry,” Laurence
D. Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, said at a mutual fund conference on Friday.
The abrupt shake-up, which included the appointment of six new members to the AllianceBernstein board
and the removal of nine, comes as investors continue to abandon higher-priced, actively managed mutual funds in favor of cheaper exchange-traded funds that track a wide variety of stock and bond indexes.
“We want to adjust the company to the new structure of the industry.”
According to Morningstar, 36 percent of the mutual funds it tracks now follow passive strategies — up from 16 percent 10 years ago.
Active managers have been struggling for years to come up with a strategy for confronting the tremendous flow of money to passive investment strategies,
but the recent pickup in money moving to exchange-traded funds is forcing many to act sooner rather than later.
AllianceBernstein, an institutional fund manager rooted in a culture of active stock management, has seen investors
take their money elsewhere in recent years despite efforts by Mr. Kraus to reverse the company’s fortunes.
and Shakes Up Board -
By LANDON THOMAS Jr. MAY 1, 2017
In a move that highlights the increasing pressures faced by stock pickers on Wall Street, Peter S. Kraus, the chief
executive of AllianceBernstein Holding, was ousted by the money manager’s controlling shareholder on Monday.
