Here’s $99 million. Now get out.
In a surprise move that left Wall street flummoxed, AllianceBernstein on Monday ousted Chairman and CEO Peter Kraus, who had led the firm for eights years, as well as all nine of its independent directors.
The money manager didn’t provide a clear reason for the shakeup, but in securities filings it revealed that Kraus — a former Goldman Sachs exec who had led AllianceBernstein for 8 years — was getting a $99.3 million payout.
AXA, which has 63.8 percent stake in AllianceBernstein, said JPMorgan Chase alum Seth Bernstein will replacing Kraus as CEO. Former World Bank president Robert Zoellick is stepping in as board chairman.
“In an industry that is confronting significant shifts, we need to continue transforming the business to improve the quality of our investment solutions while delivering our services more effectively,” Denis Duverne of Paris, France-based insurance firm AXA said in a statement Monday.
Analysts weren’t buying Duverne’s soundbites, amid signs that he had been quietly moving to replace him for at least several weeks.
“There is little news other than the changes did not reflect strategic or financial issues — suggesting to us, potentially personal conflict drove the sudden change,” Citigroup analyst William Katz wrote in a note Monday.
Duverne claimed that the decision was motivated in part by it being “eight years in a row, for Peter.” But analysts pressed further during a AllianceBernstein’s hastily assembled call Monday morning.
“I don’t think it’s relevant to make a comment about — I just don’t comment about the past,” Duverne said after Alex Blostein of Goldman Sachs said he’d “try another crack at this” and pressed Duverne for details.
Before too many tears are shed for Kraus, the now-unemployed CEO will soon be getting his $99.3 million check as AXA, buys back Kraus’ 4.5 percent AllianceBernstein stake, according to regulatory filings.
It is the second time Kraus was handsomely rewarded while being shoved out the door.
Kraus, formerly a longtime Goldman Sachs executive, famously earned $30 million from Merrill Lynch after spending just three months as head of strategy there in 2008, scoring a golden parachute right before Merrill was sold to Bank of America.
Shares of AllianceBernstein closed down 3.3 percent at $22.15.