ISS, the corporate governance and proxy voting agency, has acquired the commercial business of Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC), the corporate governance research firm founded in 1972. This deal represents the third large acquisition by ISS in the past eight weeks.
As part of the agreement, proceeds from the sale will fund an initial endowment and ISS will provide ongoing in-kind contributions to IRRC to create the IRRC Institute for Corporate Responsibility. The Institute, which will be a new and completely independent entity, will build upon IRRC’s heritage by providing information to shareholders and companies on corporate responsibility and social issues.
“Our partnership with IRRC is designed to respond to evolving client needs and to deliver profoundly important benefits to our combined clients, our combined staff and to the corporate governance industry as a whole,” says John M. Connolly, President and Chief Executive Officer of ISS. “Our clients can expect a broader range of products and services and an improved set of solutions on a global and local basis, our staff will benefit from career and professional growth opportunities and the industry will gain an independent thought leader that is 100% focused on tackling corporate responsibility issues of great importance.”
For the past 15 months, ISS has been tryiong to transform itself into a global corporate governance entity with local market expertise and on-the-ground client service. Its aim is to deliver in-country corporate governance research and proxy voting support. To that end, ISS recently completed acquisitions of two of the pre-eminent firms in Europe and Australia – Deminor Rating and Proxy Australia.
The non-recommendation style research pioneered by IRRC will now sit side-by-side on a single platform with the existing choices ISS offers in recommendation-based research. ISS’s offering will include IRRC’s products such as Vote Check, Corporate Benchmarking, Portfolio Screener and ii-Profiles.
“Our acquisition of IRRC’s research, proxy voting and screening business will enable ISS to deliver enhanced value to clients worldwide by providing access to a global network of local experts and an integrated end-to-end platform to facilitate research distribution and vote execution,” adds Connolly. “Additionally, we are delighted to have the opportunity to provide the financial support necessary to create the new IRRC Institute for Corporate Responsibility, which will have lasting benefits for our industry for years to come.”
“The market shift toward globalization, integration, and straight through electronic vote processing has resulted in the need for technology enablement, local market expertise and global scope,” says Linda Crompton, President and Chief Executive Officer of IRRC. “Choosing to partner with ISS is the right choice for IRRC, for our clients and for our employees.”
IRRC plans to establish an independent board of directors for its new Institute and begin a search for an executive director. All members of the corporate governance industry will be invited to participate in the Institute through additional funding, in-kind contributions and various works of thought leadership.