UBS Investment Bank Expands Alternative Research Through Strategic Alliance with Trucost

>p/>UBS Investment Bank announced today that its Alternative Research business has entered into a strategic alliance with Trucost Plc., an environmental research organization providing data and analysis on the carbon impacts of companies. Trucost helps investors, companies and governments understand how environmental issues will affect companies’ business activities.

UBS Alternative Research’s arrangement with Trucost will include joint marketing through collaboration with our leading SRI research team, as well as investor calls, conferences and roadshows, according to a company release. In addition, UBS will facilitate access to Trucost’s products and services, which includes analyses of company emissions, natural resource usage, and other environmental impacts based on a proprietary external cost methodology.

“The demand for socially responsible and environmentally conscious research has risen sharply,” said Mark Steinert, Global Head of Equities Research at UBS, in the release. “Our alliance with Trucost enhances our ability to provide our clients with highly relevant and differentiated perspectives that will support both their investment goals as well as their philosophies.”

Simon Thomas, Chief Executive of Trucost said, “Trucost was established in 2000 to help investors, companies and government to understand how companies’ environmental impacts could affect their financial performance. With the world’s largest and most comprehensive database of corporate environmental impacts covering the world’s major indices, Trucost looks forward to working with UBS to help its clients understand and reduce their investment exposure to the financial risk of climate change regulation.”

“More and more investors understand that environmental impacts have a cost, and that cost affects business performance,” added Julie Hudson, Global Head of Socially Responsible Investing and Sustainability Equity Research, in the release. “Trucost’s research offerings address an immediate need in the marketplace, and we are very pleased to offer our clients this access.”

Nick Agarwal, Head of UBS Alternative Research further added, “This relationship demonstrates UBS’s continued efforts to build UBS Alternative Research and provide clients with greater access to nontraditional content and tools that can enhance their overall investment processes.”

Since 2008, UBS Alternative Research has formed strategic alliances with four other firms including Integrity Research, Governance Metrics International, America’s Research Group and Noble.