Morningstar Sustainalytics Acquires Aquantix, a Provider of Property-Level Climate Risk Data
Morningstar Sustainalytics, a major global provider of ESG research, ratings, and data, has acquired Aquantix, a Montreal-based technology firm that develops and provides property-level climate risk analytics services to real estate and mortgage lending industries.
Aquantix's AI-powered models assess the effects of climate change on 500 million residential and commercial properties in 180 countries.
As demand for climate-related data among real estate investors, banks, and lenders increases, Aquantix's technology and experience will enable Morningstar Sustainalytics to assist these important stakeholders in assessing climate-related risks in the global real estate market.
Morningstar Sustainalytics has been investing in talent, technology, and tools to rapidly develop its climate capabilities and solutions to assist more financial market participants in addressing the wide-ranging implications of climate change.
Today, the Climate Solutions team at Morningstar Sustainalytics consists of over 90 people from several disciplines. Morningstar Sustainalytics will provide a variety of market-leading climate solutions to enable investors, banks, and enterprises to make more informed climate-related decisions using a combination of in-house expertise and Aquantix's technology and analytics.
Aquantix's strategic agreement with Teranet Inc., a global leader in contemporary registry solutions, real estate ecosystem platforms, and data and analytics, will also benefit Morningstar Sustainalytics.
Teranet, established in Canada, combines Aquantix's property-level climate risk data into its products to give market-leading data solutions to federally regulated financial institutions and regulators.
Morningstar Sustainalytics will collaborate with Teranet to provide high-quality real estate climate data solutions to decision-makers in real estate, banking, financing, and insurance.
Senior Vice President of Climate Solutions at Morningstar Sustainalytics, Azadeh Sabour, said:
"Real estate is an asset class directly impacted by increasing physical climate risks. With the addition of the Aquantix team and their technology, we are fast-tracking our asset-level data collection and developing innovative climate-focused solutions for the commercial and residential real estate market. We are excited to bring the Aquantix team into the Morningstar Sustainalytics family and look forward to collaborating with Teranet."
Morningstar Sustainalytics' Commercialisation Director of Real Estate Solutions, Toby Messier, said:
"Banks, lenders, and real estate asset managers require a comprehensive understanding of the impact that climate change has on their portfolio of real estate investments. Aquantix fills this void by capturing millions of climate-related data points and providing meaningful property risk metrics that measure the estimated asset damage from emerging climate events across various time frames and scenarios. By joining Morningstar Sustainalytics, we are in an even stronger position to scale and help more real estate financiers achieve their broader climate change goals."
Source: PRNewswire
