DALLAS—Alerian, an independent information services company providing indexes, data and research to global investors, announced Dec. 9 its acquisition of S-Network Global Indexes, a leading publisher and developer of over 300 proprietary and custom indexes.

The acquisition will result in index-linked AUM of $20 billion across the combined suite of indexes and further enhance Alerian’s global indexing, analytics and data capabilities. In addition to its globally recognized midstream energy benchmarks, Alerian is now positioned to offer indexing solutions and services covering global equity markets and specialty sectors.

“By combining our research capabilities with S-Network’s full-service indexing platform, Alerian will be well-positioned to innovate and serve the evolving needs of a much broader range of investors, asset managers, and product sponsors,” said David LaValle, CEO of Alerian. “Index-based investing is a significant long-term trend that will continue to attract client assets for decades.”

“Alerian has built a strong brand with a reputation for deep research and data capabilities,” said Joseph LaCorte, CEO of S-Network Global Indexes. “Integrating S-Network’s state-of-the-art technology platform and team of experienced professionals with Alerian’s proven capabilities will make for a unique and competitive offering in the global index industry.”

Patrick Shaddow, director of index operations at S-Network Global Indexes, said, “S-Network maintains daily coverage of nearly 14,000 global stocks and its core database provides detailed and fully cleansed data on over 25,000 stocks going back to 1999, giving it strong capabilities to create accurate beta, smart beta, thematic and socially responsible indexes.”

John Jacobs, Chairman of Alerian, said, “the transaction is an exciting strategic move for Alerian and the combined organization will enable us to provide creative product solutions to the market.” Andrew Feller, managing partner of Aretex Capital and Alerian director, said “we are thrilled to support Alerian’s growth initiatives and believe that this transaction is an important step to expand Alerian’s leadership in the index sector.”

LaValle will oversee both entities and continue his focus on building deeper index, data and research offerings to better serve clients worldwide. Alerian and S-Network will continue to operate from their current locations in Dallas and New York. The transaction is expected to close before Jan. 1.