NEWS
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
World Headquarters
[MERRILL LYNCH LOGO] 4 World Financial Center
New York, New York 10080
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Release date: September 14, 2005
For information contact:
[AXA LOGO] Merrill Lynch Media Relations:
Michael O'Looney (212) 449-7283
michael_olooney@ml.com
Erik Hendrickson (212) 449-7293
erik_hendrickson@ml.com
[Advest LOGO] Merrill Lynch Investor Relations:
Jonathan Blum (866) 607-1234
Investor_Relations@ml.com
AXA Financial Media Relations:
Mary Taylor (212) 314-5845
Mary.Taylor@axa-financial.com
Advest Group Media Relations:
Robert Fraleigh (860) 509-2046
Robert.fraleigh@advest.com
MERRILL LYNCH AND AXA FINANCIAL ANNOUNCE ADVEST TO BECOME PART OF MERRILL LYNCH
Merrill Lynch adds scale by purchasing a high quality regional retail
brokerage firm.
New York, September 14, 2005 - Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) and AXA Financial
today announced the execution of a definitive agreement for Merrill Lynch to
purchase The Advest Group, Inc., a subsidiary of AXA Financial. Financial terms
were not disclosed. The acquisition is scheduled to close in the fourth quarter
and is subject to normal regulatory
-MORE-
approvals. The transaction is expected to be neutral to Merrill Lynch's 2006
earnings and earnings per share and accretive beyond 2006. Advest, based in
Hartford, Connecticut, has 1,560 employees and comprises three primary
businesses:
o Private Client Group (PCG) - has 515 financial advisors located in
the Northeast, Midwest and Florida. The Private Client Group
includes the New York and Florida-based Lebenthal retail municipal
fixed income business.
o Boston Advisors - manages $3 billion in balanced, equity and fixed
income portfolios for individuals and institutional investors.
o Capital Markets Group (CMG) - has a middle-markets and
institutional capital markets division including equity, taxable
income and municipal capital markets businesses.
"We are extremely pleased and look forward to welcoming the Advest
financial professionals to Merrill Lynch. With access to our platform, products
and services, they will have an even greater number of wealth management tools
to better serve their clients. As the industry leader in wealth management, we
are committed to growing our private client business and this acquisition is
another example of our execution of that strategy," said Robert J. McCann, vice
chairman and president of Merrill Lynch's Global Private Client Group.
"For years, Advest has been at the cutting edge in providing wealth
management and advisory services to our clients," said Daniel J. Mullane,
Advest's president and CEO. "With this announcement, we will have the
opportunity to expand these capabilities by becoming part of the most stable and
robust platform in the industry."
"While Advest is an excellent company with a strong reputation in the
marketplace, its business is better aligned with Merrill Lynch's Global Private
Client Group. This transaction will provide Advest's financial professionals
with a more complementary platform for growth. For AXA, this transaction allows
us to reinvest in our strong core businesses of life insurance and annuities,"
said Christopher "Kip" Condron, president and chief executive of AXA Financial.
2
Merrill Lynch is one of the world's leading financial management and
advisory companies with offices in 36 countries and total client assets of
approximately $1.6 trillion. As an investment bank, it is a leading global
underwriter of debt and equity securities and strategic advisor to corporations,
governments, institutions and individuals worldwide. Through Merrill Lynch
Investment Managers, the company is one of the world's largest managers of
financial assets. Firm wide, assets under management total $478 billion. For
more information on Merrill Lynch please visit www.ml.com.
AXA Financial is one of the premier U.S. organizations providing financial
protection and wealth management through its strong brands: AXA Equitable Life
Insurance Company, AXA Advisors, LLC, Alliance Capital Management, L.P., Sanford
Bernstein & Co., LLC, AXA Distributors, LLC, and the MONY family of companies,
including MONY Life Insurance and U.S. Financial Life Insurance. AXA Financial
had approximately $598 billion in assets under management as of December 31,
2004. AXA Financial is a member of the global AXA Group.
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