RiskMetrics To Buy Innovest
March 2, 2009
RiskMetrics Group, a provider of risk management and corporate governance services, has inked a deal to acquire Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, which supplies institutional investors with sustainability research.
With the acquisition of New York-based Innovest and its staff--including co-founders Matthew Kiernan and Hewson Baltzell--RiskMetrics, which currently provides environmental, social and governance (ESG) research, data feeds and portfolio screening tools to more than 350 firms, will boast a team of 50 researchers in the area. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"A myriad of long-term sustainability factors, particularly around climate change, are playing an increasingly important role in the way funds invest and view their portfolio risk," said Stephen Harvey, head of RiskMetrics' governance business in New York. He called Innovest, which started up in 1995, "one of the few firms that has successfully taken a quantitative approach to assessing ESG issues."
Innovest CEO Kiernan added, "It would be an understatement to say that today's turbulent market environment is placing an unprecedented premium on understanding the entire spectrum of investment risks-both traditional and non-traditional."
RiskMetrics reported last month that it saw a record $296 million in revenues in 2008, up 23 percent from $240 million in 2007.
