ERM Announces New ESG Ratings Platform for Private Markets

A Brief Summary

ERM, the largest pure-play sustainability advisory firm in the world, announced the launch of ESG Fusion, an Al-enabled, on-demand, custom rating platform for private markets. The new platform will provide reliable, consistent and comprehensive ESG data and insights to enhance the businesses of privately-owned companies.

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ESG rating services hardly reach out to private market investors and alternative managers, but now with the launch of the new platform, expects to fill the gap and offer a faster turnaround time compared to other offerings. Subsequently, private market businesses will make better investment choices, identify new opportunities for value creation, and quantify ESG-related risks factors.

Private credit funds and hedge funds are the primary users of ESG Fusion. It can also be used as an early-stage screening ESG due diligence tool for equity transactions, supplementing and informing the focus of a more traditional in-depth ESG due diligence.

ERM's extensive domain expertise in ESG is combined with near real-time data analytics capabilities in this platform. Intelligent web crawlers, APIs from an ecosystem of data providers, and alternative data sources are used to deliver detailed ESG data and content, which is vetted and curated by ERM professionals. ESG Fusion allows investors to do ESG due diligence, communicate with portfolio businesses to track performance and development and compare ESG performance within and across industries.

Gerard Spans, Chief Information/Innovation Officer at ERM, said: “Investors are increasingly seeking actionable insights into ESG performance of companies in which they invest to help private credit and equity clients achieve their sustainability objectives. ESG Fusion provides a unique client experience in data-driven support for investment decisions.”