Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has acquired investment research company Glass, Lewis & Co., for $46 million, bringing ownership of the proxy advisory provider back to North America.
The pension plan bought the San Francisco-based company from Shanghai-based Xinhua Finance Ltd., which acquired Glass Lewis last December. Glass Lewis provides research to help institutional investors make investment and proxy-voting decisions by identifying business, legal, governance and financial statement risks. But some Glass Lewis staffers had concerns over Xinhua's corporate governance.
"The investment in Glass Lewis ensures that investors will have an impartial, expert source of information on corporate governance, accounting and legal issues at public companies for years to come," said Brian Gibson, senior vice president of public equities at the pension plan, in a statement.
Glass Lewis CEO Katherine Rabin welcomed the acquisition, noting that the firm would be under independent ownership, outside of public markets.
