ESG rating and emerging market research
Addressing the investor requirement to understand the future growth environment
Meaningful insight into environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance, risks and opportunities is critical to investors looking to pick future winners.
Maplecroft provides critical risk insight into the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China), Next-11 and those countries where their capital is most invested. These economies are often associated with poor legal and regulatory environments, corruption, human rights infringements and are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, resource and energy security. Western businesses that interact with these countries must responsibly navigate these risks and identify the opportunities to remain profitable in this future growth environment.
Our comprehensive portfolio of company risk ratings, country and sub-sovereign risk indices, interactive GIS maps and in-depth reports provide innovative and proven solutions for assessing both corporate ESG management proficiency, in addition to country and value chain risk exposures.
Emerging markets and bond ratings
Our country risk indices, maps and GIS-derived analysis allow users to zoom-in and explore the components of over 100 global risk indices, including raw data, sources and weightings. Country risk indices are used for government bond ratings as well as the rating of sub-sovereign authorities. Investors can identify risk at regional, country and site specific levels, plus explore the inter-relationships between different risks and the implications for specific areas of operations. Maps can be tailored to incorporate sector and asset overlays for key industries including agriculture, financial services, oil and manufacturing, as well as a specific organisation’s own operational footprint. The focus is on understanding future growth environments and the companies and countries that will flourish.
Company ESG and innovation intelligence
The Maplecroft Sustainability Performance Benchmark (MSPB) is a repository of company ESG intelligence. It includes our ratings for almost 1000 companies on their exposure to, and management of ESG and business risks. The electronic questionnaire, data centre and analysis tools include insight into more than 300 questions and performance parameters. Each of these is derived from best practice and international standards as well as extensive in-field and consulting experience. The MSPB captures risk insight for all sectors in line with Bloomberg sector classifications and uses Maplecroft’s global risk indices to understand wider risk exposures across the entire geographic footprint of each company.
Our company ESG ratings and reports assess the ESG performance of companies across five pillars: management, adaptation to emerging legislation, issues and data, innovation and mitigation. The focus on innovation goes beyond research and development, to include organisational learning and the development of new, more sustainable products, services and business opportunities. Companies that embed this innovation across their operations and value chains are better able to responsibly navigate country and global risks and to operate effectively in changing policy environments.
Case study: Maplecroft Climate Change Innovation Indexes
Results from the MSPB process are used to develop bespoke indexes and benchmarks relating to individual sustainability issues. In January 2009, Maplecroft and Bloomberg launched the Maplecroft Climate Innovation Indexes (CIIs) based on the subset of the MSPB that covers carbon management and climate innovation. As part of this exercise Maplecroft screened the 800 largest US companies, rated over 300 companies and created three indexes that are now available on Bloomberg terminals: the CII Leaders (ticker: ‘CII Index’), the CII Benchmark (ticker: ‘CICOMP Index’) and the CII 100 including the 100 most capitalised US stocks (ticker: ‘CI100 Index’).
Companies in the CIIs are systematically rated against more than 100 climate performance criteria. The CIIs provide investors, asset managers and stakeholders with insight into the activities of leading US companies in the area of climate-related innovation and carbon management, which are seen as leading indicators of future financial performance. The CIIs facilitate capital inflows from investors to companies with demonstrable sustainability credentials, enabling both companies and investors to play a constructive role in addressing the challenges of climate change.
Risk calculators
Maplecroft risk calculators enable investors to assemble risk profiles relevant to their area of interest e.g. for an existing fund or a prospective investment. They calculate risks relating to issue and geography, as well as sector and product, combining Maplecroft’s expertise in country and corporate ESG risk exposure. The calculator can also aggregate information for multiple queries and for multiple issues, for instance entire supply chains or business operations across multiple geographies, as well as include information provided by customers on how well risks are being managed. Risk calculator outputs include scorecards, charts and interactive risk maps as well as access to our in-depth country reports.
Off-the-shelf and tailored solutions
- Analysis, index creation and mapping of risks across global value chains down to site level
- Rating of risk management proficiencies and innovative capacity against risk exposures
- Country and issue risk identification, assessment and monitoring
- Investment strategies and advice
- Supply chain monitoring utilising risk calculators and management systems
- Carbon footprinting, carbon proficiency, innovation, life cycles and engagement
- Human rights mapping and monitoring
- Business continuity monitoring, including terrorism, pandemics and natural disasters
- Scenario maps and horizon scanning
Reports and briefings available for all countries with detailed sub-national mapping
of specific risk exposures
Company scorecards indicating management proficiencies in specific areas of risk
on a range of ESG criteria, with integrated sector analyses and benchmarking
Performance of CIIs is superior to all other trading sustainability indexes