MSCI arms all investors with sustainability ratings of 2,800 top firms

By Simon Jessop and Carolyn Cohn

LONDON (Reuters) – MSCI (N:) published the environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings of more than 2,800 companies on Monday, giving all asset managers more detail to make their investment decisions.

The ratings provider said in a statement it had made public on its website the ratings on the companies in its All-Country World Index () “to help … identify the most financially relevant ESG risks and opportunities”.

MSCI, which awards companies an ESG rating based on 37 criteria such as corporate governance and carbon emissions, said it would release data on more companies in 2020, taking the total number with public data to 7,500.

The index group gives companies a rating from triple-A to triple-C based on their exposure to ESG risks and their management of them relative to similar companies.

Among those released by MSCI on Monday, Facebook (O:) and Alibaba (N:) both have a BBB rating, while Google’s Alphabet (O:) is rated AA.

Meanwhile mining company Glencore (L:) has a BB rating and rival Vedanta (NS:) has a CCC rating.

The ratings are constructed using 1,000 data points from the companies themselves as well as alternative data sets and are reviewed weekly.

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