French Bank Will Buy Cowen Brokerage

Societe Generale agreed to buy New York-based brokerage Cowen & Co. for about $615 million in cash, expanding the French bank into the U.S. stock business. The bank, Europe’s fifth-largest, will pay $324 million at the time of sale and an additional $216 million over three years to Cowen’s 100 partners. It will also pay $75 million in deferred compensation as part of a package to retain key employees. Societe Generale is buying Cowen, a closely held brokerage specializing in arranging stock sales for technology, health-care and media companies, to add equity underwriting to its U.S. investment banking business, which underwrites high-yield bonds and other securities for U.S. media, telecommunications, gaming, lodging and entertainment companies.