MJ Hudson, the asset management consultancy, has acquired Spring Associates Responsible Investment Service, an ESG (environmental, social and governance) consultancy and reporting business, based in Amsterdam. This acquisition follows MJ Hudson’s establishment, in January, of a legal practice in Milan, and the acquisition of North American and European data & analytics and benchmarking specialist, Amaces, in December.
The deal is MJ Hudson’s first acquisition in the ESG sector, although it has been advising its clients on ESG factors for a number of years and recently produced a widely read guide on implementing ESG policies in private equity. The ‘MJ Hudson Book of Environmental, Social and Governance Factors in Private Equity Investing – A Guide to Implementing ESG in Your Private Equity Portfolio’ is available to download here.
The acquisition of the Amsterdam-based ESG business also provides the firm with another operating base in one of Europe and the EU’s key asset management centres.
Active since 2005, Spring Associates was an early mover in Responsible Investing and ESG and has a significant roster of clients, largely consisting of private equity fund managers and institutional investors. These clients and a team of 10 professionals, plus certain support staff, will transition to MJ Hudson Spring. The senior executive team will remain in position and the business will trade under the MJ Hudson Spring brand.
MJ Hudson Spring will continue to help fund managers integrate ESG into their investment processes, and support their portfolio companies by identifying and monitoring ESG risks and opportunities for value creation. The team also supports institutional investors in a number of ways, including analysing, monitoring and reporting on ESG risks in their own fund portfolios.
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