In Brief: Societe Generale to Pay $540M for Cowen

Societe Generale said Monday that it would buy Cowen & Co., the New York investment banking firm, for $540 million in cash.

The Paris-based bank would pay Cowen's partners 60% of the purchase price at closing and the remaining 40% in equal installments over three years. Societe Generale has also established a retention pool of $75 million for certain key Cowen employees to be paid over three years.

Societe Generale is buying Cowen through a subsidiary, Societe Generale Securities Corp., which would be renamed SG Cowen Securities Corp. Joseph M. Cohen, Cowen's chief executive, would be chairman of the new company with Curtis R. Welling as president and chief executive.

Societe Generale said it does not anticipate staff reductions as part of the transaction "because there is almost no overlap of the existing businesses."

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