ISS, the world’s largest proxy advisory firm, will expand coverage of its QuickScore corporate governance scoring by nearly 10 percent, mainly by bolstering its analysis of companies in emerging markets, the firm says.
ISS will cover a total of 4,500 companies in 30 markets through QuickScore after it launches coverage in India, China and South Korea by the end of the first quarter of 2015 and expands its analysis of companies in Brazil, Russia and South Africa.
The firm says it will also start ‘deeper coverage’ of European companies in the STOXX 600 index. Before the expanded coverage, ISS covered 4,100 companies, including 3,000 in the US and 1,100 internationally.
The expansion comes with the launch of QuickScore 3.0, the company says. The upgrade to the previous version allows clients to analyze underlying data that ISS uses in coming to its recommendations and allows investors to screen companies for hundreds of corporate governance factors.
‘The latest generation of QuickScore underscores ISS’ commitment to continual innovation in meeting the governance data and reporting needs of our clients,’ Marija Kramer, ISS’ head of product development, says in a press release. ‘QuickScore 3.0 provides broader and deeper portfolio coverage that, critically, is underpinned by a methodology reflecting the latest in global best practices.’
ISS will also alter its methodology in the US for covering the ‘material degradation’ to shareholder rights, the weighting to board gender diversity, the presence of a controlling shareholder and the existence of sunset provisions for companies with unequal voting rights.
The firm also says it will update company reports to include historical scores, a record of data changes and a trending analysis relying on down-arrows and up-arrows to indicate whether the company’s record is improving or deteriorating.
