Our free roundup offers items about Hamilton Lane & Canoe Intelligence, a fintech vet & GoBubble, Banco Monex & CLS, and Euronext & VP Securities.
Morningstar Ups Ownership of ESG Research Firm
Morningstar, Inc., an investment research provider, reports an agreement to acquire Sustainalytics, a provider of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings and research.
Morningstar also points out that it currently has an approximately 40 percent ownership stake in Sustainalytics, first acquired in 2017, and that, under the terms of the latest deal, it will purchase the remaining approximately 60 percent of Sustainalytics shares when the transaction closes.
The transaction includes “a cash payment at closing of approximately €55 million [$59,538,796.17] (subject to certain potential adjustments) and additional cash payments in 2021 and 2022 based on a multiple of Sustainalytics’ 2020 and 2021 fiscal year revenues,” Morningstar specifies in its statement. “Based on the upfront consideration, Morningstar estimates the enterprise value of Sustainalytics to be €170 million [$184,011,854.38]. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to occur early in the third quarter of 2020.”
Morningstar, which notes that it operates in 27 countries, also says it plans to “continue to invest in Sustainalytics’ existing business while also further integrating ESG data and insights across Morningstar’s existing research and solutions for all segments, including individual investors, advisors, private equity firms, asset managers and owners, plan sponsors, and credit issuers.”
According to the statement, Sustainalytics has more than 650 staff members in 16 offices, “including more than 200 analysts with varied multidisciplinary expertise across more than 40 industry groups.”
Hamilton Lane Deploys Canoe Intelligence Platform
Hamilton Lane, a private markets investment management firm, has implemented a platform from vendor Canoe Intelligence that is intended to convert unstructured alternative investment reporting documents into “normalized, accessible datasets,” officials say.
The Canoe platform is based upon proprietary technology and open source machine learning and artificial intelligence IT, according to the vendor. The system allows clients to extract relevant data from “complex PDFs and form a growing, shared intelligence of data extraction patterns that can be leveraged by all clients.”
The data management aspect of the platform “extracts and normalizes data for ancillary systems, such as reporting, analysis and accounting, and remains a constant should any of those downstream systems change,” officials say.
The effort is another step by Hamilton Lane to streamline internal processes and better track and organize associated documents, officials say. Canoe Intelligence serves the alternative investment operations of institutional investors, capital allocators and asset servicing firms.
Previously, Hamilton Lane invested in Canoe’s series A funding round in February 2020, and is collaborating with the vendor to improve data collection, accounting, investment tracking, portfolio management, reporting and more, officials say.
FinTech Veteran Joins GoBubble As CMO
John Lloyd
London, England-based GoBubble, which describes itself as a builder of digital communities for children, reports that it has named John Lloyd, a fintech veteran, as its chief marketing officer (CMO).
GoBubble notes that Lloyd joins the firm from ClearlySo, a European investment bank, where he led marketing for the past four years.
Prior to ClearlySo, Lloyd served in senior product strategy and marketing roles at Traiana, which later became part of interdealer broker ICAP, officials say. The brokerage firm also provides post trade risk mitigation and information services.
GoBubble employs a “combination of advanced security checks, proprietary real-time content moderation powered by AI and biometric age verification” to create a “safer, healthier and kinder digital community for children,” the vendor says in a statement.
Lloyd, in the statement, points out that “providing safer, healthier and kinder digital communities for kids, parents and teachers has never been more needed, especially during covid-19.”
GoBubble also notes that “more the 1,500 primary schools across 39 countries” are registered for its services.
Banco Monex Offers Access to CLS FX Settlement
CLS Group, a market infrastructure provider offering settlement, processing and data processes and procedures, reports that Banco Monex “has become the first Latin American third-party service provider of CLS’s … payment-versus-payment (PvP) FX settlement service, CLSSettlement,” according to a statement.
CLS notes that Banco Monex has been a CLSSettlement member since 2018, “when it became the first Mexican bank to participate directly in CLSSettlement … By enabling its clients to participate as third parties, Banco Monex is helping them to mitigate settlement risk while significantly enhancing liquidity efficiencies for the Mexican market.”
Facilitating access to CLSSettlement for the bank’s FX clients as third parties will “help to build a more robust FX market in Latin America and globally,” Héctor Lagos, CEO of Banco Monex, says in the statement.
SEC Forms COVID-19 Market Monitoring Group
The SEC has formed an internal, cross-divisional COVID-19 Market Monitoring Group that will help the regulator coordinate its actions and analysis of the pandemic, and respond to external requests for “information, analysis and assistance from fellow regulators and other public sector partners.”
The action and analysis will focus on COVID-19’s impacts on markets, issuers, and investors, officials say.
“The group will also assist in the SEC’s efforts to coordinate with and support the COVID-19-related efforts of other federal financial agencies and other bodies, including the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG), Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB), among others,” adds the SEC.
More information about the new group is at: https://bit.ly/2yPpqeG
Euronext Acquires the Danish CSD VP Securities
Exchange operator Euronext is acquiring 70 percent of VP Securities, the Danish Central Securities Depository (CSD) operator, to expand Euronext’s footprint in the Nordic region, officials say.
“The transaction will double Euronext’s central securities depository business in size, further improving Euronext’s revenue mix and marking an important milestone towards Euronext’s strategic goal of building the leading European market infrastructure,” according to a Euronext statement.
Euronext will acquire VP Securities from existing owners the Danish Central Bank, Danske Bank, Nykredit, Nordea and Jyske Bank, officials say. The CSD services of VP Securities cover fixed income, equity and investment funds, and “a key infrastructure helping to finance Denmark’s real economy.”
“The price offered for 100 percent of the shares is DKK1.12bn (c. €150m2). Euronext will open an offer to all remaining shareholders, at the same terms and conditions. The transaction will be funded with existing resources. The acquisition of VP Securities is in line with Euronext’s disciplined capital deployment policy and commitment to maintain a strong investment grade credit rating,” according to a Euronext statement.
Based in Copenhagen, VP Securities has more than €1.2 trillion of assets under custody, officials add.
The acquisition “significantly expands” Euronext’s footprint in the Nordic region, which represented 25 percent of revenues for 2019 “after previously acquiring Oslo Børs VPS and Nord Pool,” according to Euronext. Euronext’s exchange coverage encompasses Belgium, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the U.K.
The acquisition is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2020 after regulatory approvals, officials say.
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