MSCI to Explore Strategic Alternatives for Institutional Shareholder Services
Rockville, MD; October 31, 2013 – Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), a leading provider of corporate governance solutions to the global financial community,announced today that the Board of Directors of its parent company, MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI), has authorized the exploration of strategic alternatives regarding ISS. The announcement represents the start of a process that may eventually lead to a full separation of ISS from MSCI.
“The senior ISS management team is very supportive of MSCI’s decision and confident about the future prospects of the business,” said ISS President Gary Retelny. “Over our 27 year history, ISS has maintained an unwavering focus on providing clients with leading corporate governance products and solutions that help them manage and mitigate governance risk. I expect the current ISS management team to remain in place and fully dedicated to the business. As we move forward, our mission remains the same: to provide unbiased governance advice to the global institutional investor community and tools for corporations to assist them with their governance needs,” added Mr. Retelny.
ISS has launched new products, most notably executive compensation data and analytics and QuickScore™, strengthened its senior management team, grown its sales organization, reached out to new clients, and invested significantly in its technology platform and client service. The company, which has recently seen record high client retention rates, is also poised to capitalize on the growing demand for its data from front-office portfolio managers and corporations who are focused on corporate governance risk mitigation as a shareholder-value enhancing measure.
There can be no assurance that the process of exploring strategic alternatives will result in a transaction or that any transaction will ultimately be consummated. ISS does not expect MSCI to disclose further developments with respect to the process unless and until a definitive decision is reached with respect to a specific transaction or the process of exploration is otherwise terminated or concluded. Morgan Stanley is serving as financial advisor to MSCI and Davis Polk is serving as legal advisor.
