Sustainalytics Launches New Corporate Governance Research & Ratings Products

TORONTO, 2015-03-31 15:01 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sustainalytics, a leading provider of environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and analysis, today launched the first products within its new corporate governance research and ratings product suite. By tying companies' corporate governance practices and boardroom decisions to its ability to execute on its business strategy, Sustainalytics' new corporate governance research suite is intended to support global asset owners and asset managers with investment decision-making, portfolio analytics, policy formulation, engagement activities, proxy voting and other investment processes.

"Corporate governance as a material investment risk factor is widely embraced by mainstream investors, yet most corporate governance research today is either data-centric with little contextual insight or is produced for the purpose of a single point in time annual proxy vote," said Sustainalytics' Chief Executive Officer Michael Jantzi. "Our focus, similar to the way in which we analyze ESG-related investment risk, is on corporate governance as an integral part of the entire investment process. We look through an investor lens to assess whether a company's corporate governance practices are adding to or detracting from its ability to execute on its business strategy. We offer an opinion about whether or not the company is a good long-term steward of investors' capital."

By monitoring companies year-round and assessing governance investment risks and opportunities, Sustainalytics enables investors to determine how companies' corporate governance practices may impact shareholders. The first two research products launched today are based on six governance key issue areas, including board integrity and performance, board structure, shareholder rights, remuneration, financial reporting and stakeholder governance, and are underpinned by approximately 50 material corporate governance indicators.

• Corporate Governance Insights are timely, brief reports that capture real-time corporate governance-related events or incidents that may have an investor impact. The Insights are generated based on triggering events, such as key changes to executive personnel, material M&A transactions, changes to compensation programs, financial reporting irregularities, or changes to shareholder rights. The Insights are accompanied by a comprehensive Corporate Governance Company Report.
• Corporate Governance Company Reports provide comprehensive corporate governance information and analysis on a global universe of over 4000 companies, together with ongoing monitoring of this universe for key governance events. The Reports are intended to help investors understand a company's governance practices and decision-making across a full-range of corporate governance issues, and are updated annually and anytime a material incident occurs.

"Our goal is to help institutional investors connect a company's actual corporate governance structures and behaviours with its underlying business drivers," said Sustainalytics' Director of Corporate Governance Research Gary Hewitt. "We are going beyond simply providing standard positive and negative indicators and ratings, and instead sharing meaningful analyst insights that assess the effects a company's corporate governance practices have on investors."

In late 2015, Sustainalytics will introduce its Corporate Governance Risk Radar, which is a heat map-based signaling product intended for front-end screening, portfolio monitoring, and benchmarking.

While Sustainalytics' Corporate Governance research and ratings are produced separately from the Firm's traditional ESG research, the two product sets are designed to consider some appropriate overlapping key issue areas, while providing independent perspectives.

To learn more about Sustainalytics' Corporate Governance products, please click here.

About Sustainalytics

Headquartered in Amsterdam, Sustainalytics is an independent ESG research and analysis firm supporting investors around the world with the development and implementation of responsible investment strategies. With 13 offices globally, Sustainalytics partners with institutional investors who integrate environmental, social and governance information and assessments into their investment decisions. Today, the firm has over 200 staff members, including more than 100 analysts with varied multidisciplinary expertise of more than 40 industries. For the past three years, Sustainalytics was voted best independent responsible investment research firm in Extel's IRRI survey. For more information, visit www.sustainalytics.com.

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