Investment fund intelligence firm unveils agreement to acquire ESG analytics firm
Morningstar is diving deeper into the world of ESG investing with a newly announced acquisition plan.
Two years after it acquired an ownership stake of roughly 40% in Sustainalytics, Morningstar has reached an agreement to acquire the globally recognized leader in ESG ratings and research. Sustainalytics’ enterprise value is estimated at 170 million euros.
With a history of more than 25 years, Sustainalytics provides security-level ESG Risk Ratings that underpin numerous indexes and sustainable investment products. It also offers data on over 40,000 companies and ratings on 20,000 companies across 172 countries.
Over the course of their relationship, Morningstar and Sustainalytics have supplied investors around the world with the industry’s first ever sustainability ratings for funds, a global sustainability index family, and a rich variety of sustainable portfolio analytics that includes carbon metrics and controversial product involvement data.
“Modern investors in public and private markets are demanding ESG data, research, ratings, and solutions in order to make informed, meaningful investing decisions,” said Morningstar CEO Kunal Kapoor. “Morningstar helped democratize investing, and we will do even more to extend Sustainalytics' mission of contributing to a more just and sustainable global economy.”
Following the acquisition, Morningstar intends to continue investing in Sustainalytics’ existing business, while further integrating ESG data and insights across existing research and solutions across all segments of Morningstar’s client base.
“Sustainalytics welcomes the opportunity to join the Morningstar family,” said Sustainalytics CEO Michael Jantzi. “This new ownership structure will amplify our ability to bring meaningful ESG insights, products, and services to the global investment community and to companies around the world.”
