New York – ConvergEx Group, a major execution broker, announced a strategic alliance with the Marwood Group, a healthcare advisory firm based in New York. The arrangement allows investors to use ConvergEx’s execution capabilities to purchase Marwood’s research. Although this is a capability which ConvergEx has offered since the purchase of Jaywalk by Bank of New York in 2002, the release presents the relationship as a strategic alliance.
The Marwood Group LLC is a healthcare-focused financial services firm that specializes in proprietary healthcare research, capital introductions, asset management and private equity advisory services. The firm was founded in 2001 by John Moore and Edward Kennedy, Jr. One of the hotter services has been their policy research, in which the firm advises buy-side clients on federal legislative and regulatory issues.
The arrangement appears to be a straightforward distribution deal, where ConvergEx is providing execution services. Edward Kennedy Jr is quoted in part: “We are very pleased to introduce our clients to ConvergEx so they will benefit from the access to Wall Street’s largest aggregator of soft-dollars …”
The deal makes sense. Marwood Group will benefit from offering clients the option to pay through commissions and ConvergEx will benefit from having a policy research firm of Marwood’s caliber.