Deal Expands ISS’ Suite of Offerings to Global Investment Management Community
ROCKVILLE, Md. (January 9, 2019) – Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), the leading provider of end-to-end responsible investment and governance solutions to the global financial community, today announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Strategic Insight, a leading provider of data, business intelligence, and research to the global investment management community. The transaction is expected to close early in the first quarter, subject to customary closing conditions.
Headquartered in New York with 10 additional locations across the globe, Strategic Insight delivers mission-critical data and market intelligence, including investment flow data, investment product characteristics, advisor and fund analysis, ratings, events, and editorial content for investment managers, asset owners and custodians.
“This acquisition underscores our continued commitment to assist investment professionals not only through a rapidly growing suite of solutions and services, but also through a deep repository of data and analytics,” said ISS President & CEO Gary Retelny. “As we have done for more than three decades, ISS will continue to expand our core governance, analytics, and ESG solutions for investment management and front-office professionals.”
Strategic Insight’s extensive data sets will enhance ISS Analytics, the data intelligence arm of ISS. That business today tracks more than 13.5 million individual data points across a broad universe of global companies. A recent analysis by Deloitte’s Center for Financial Services suggests alternative and traditional data will likely transform active investment management over the coming years and that firms that don’t update investment processes to incorporate such data could face the strategic risk of falling behind peers.
“The acquisition of Strategic Insight is timely and will enable our firm to accelerate new product offerings,” said Joel Mandelbaum, President & CEO of Strategic Insight. “Our clients and staff will benefit from ISS’ tradition of innovation, scale, and global brand recognition.”
“ISS’ acquisition of Strategic Insight will greatly benefit institutional and retail investors who increasingly rely on proprietary data and analytical tools to identify investment opportunities and to compete effectively in a rapidly changing marketplace,” said Tony Salewski, Managing Director with Genstar Capital. “We are pleased to help facilitate this transaction of two Genstar portfolio companies to create a scale, market-leader within the financial services industry.”
