$99M BYE-BYE BONUS

C-suite ‘Berns’ out

Here’s $99 million. Now get out.

In a surprise move that left Wall Street flummoxed, AllianceBernstein on Monday ousted Chairman and Chief Executive Peter Kraus, who had led the firm for eight years.

Axa Financial, the French insurance giant that owns the institutional money manager, also reshuffled the AB board, axing all nine members and appointing six new ones.

The money management firm didn’t provide a clear reason for the shake-up, but in securities filings it revealed that Kraus — a former Goldman Sachs exec who led AB for eight years — was getting a $99.3 million payout.

Axa, which has a 63.8 percent stake in AB, said JPMorgan Chase alum Seth Bernstein will be replacing Kraus as CEO. Former World Bank president Robert Zoellick was named chairman.

“In an industry that is confronting significant shifts, we need to continue transforming the business to improve the quality of our investment solutions while delivering our services more effectively,” Axa’s Denis Duverne said in a statement.

Analysts weren’t buying Duverne’s sound bites, amid signs that he had been quietly moving to replace him for at least several weeks.

“There is little news other than the changes did not reflect strategic or financial issues — suggesting to us, potentially personal conflict drove the sudden change,” Citigroup analyst William Katz wrote in a note Monday.

Duverne claimed that the decision was motivated in part by it being “eight years in a row, for Peter.”

AB, with roughly $500 million in assets under management, reported first quarter results last week and they certainly weren’t stellar. Revenue, operating income and operating margin were all down from last year.

AB’s shares were also nothing to write home about — falling 5.7 percent over the past 12 months, trailing rivals.

Before too many tears are shed for Kraus, it should be noted the now-unemployed CEO will soon be getting that $99.3 million check as Axa buys back his 4.5 percent AB stake.

It is the second time Kraus was handsomely rewarded while being shown the door. The former longtime Goldman Sachs executive earned $30 million from Merrill Lynch after spending just three months as head of strategy there in 2008, scoring a golden parachute right before Merrill was sold to Bank of America.

Shares of AB closed down 3.2 percent, at $22.15.