Glass, Lewis & Co., LLC, a provider of investment research and global proxy advisory and voting services, will be acquired by Xinhua Finance, a financial information and media provider.
The deal combines Glass Lewis’ expertise on corporate governance and accounting with Xinhua Finance’s geopolitical and macro-economic research, US public policy analysis, bond market and economic analysis, quantitative equity research, market news and fundamental data. Glass Lewis plans to expand its coverage of Chinese and emerging market companies and to bring objective investment research and proxy advisory and voting services to China.
“Since our initial investment in Glass Lewis in August 2006, we have come to realise what a great and growing opportunity there is in assisting investors to analyse and manage their financial, investment and reputational exposure to public companies,” says Fredy Bush, the chief executive officer of Xinhua Finance. “We are thrilled to be adding Glass Lewis to the independent research firms we own in the United States and to continue to serve our institutional investor clients all over the world with outstanding research and professional services.”
Glass Lewis and Xinhua Finance are committed to ensuring viable, long-term competition for proxy analysis and proxy voting services. With the additional resources, Glass Lewis intends to increase investment in its research and client services teams, expand into Asia and other parts of the world, and further enhance its technology platform.
“We are very excited to become part of Xinhua Finance,” says Gregory Taxin, the chief executive officer of Glass Lewis. “This transaction puts Glass Lewis on a truly global and well-capitalised platform that will greatly benefit institutional investors. We believe the capital markets are best served by competition, transparency and independent analysis. The Xinhua Finance-Glass Lewis combination gives institutional investors globally an opportunity for more of each.”
Xinhua Finance purchased an initial 19.9 percent of Glass Lewis in August 2006 and the purchase of the remaining 80.1 percent is expected to close in early 2007. Glass Lewis will continue to operate as a separate company, with its existing management, client services and research teams.