Sector developments and company hires

Climate risk analytics firms acquired
Intercontinental Exchange has acquired risQ and Level 11 Analytics, which deploy data-driven technologies for managing climate change risk. RisQ and Level 11 Analytics leverage a variety of advanced geospatial mapping systems and provide extensive expertise in analysing and joining vast amounts of disparate public, corporate and third-party data sources.

This data is integrated and mapped to financial securities to provide high quality climate risk analytics and investment decision-making tools for the industries the companies serve. Initial offerings have included climate risk and ESG data for the US municipal bond, MBS and real estate markets.

ICE and risQ started working together in January 2020 with the launch of ICE Climate Risk, an offering that allows investors in the US municipal bond market to incorporate climate risk into project and investment decisions. Level 11 Analytics developed much of the underlying geospatial technology and analytics and, together with risQ, offers ESG and economic data on physical land use and the financial assets tied to it in the MBS market.

In other news…

EMEA
TwentyFour Asset Management has appointed Ben Hayward as ceo, replacing Mark Holman, who has been the firm’s ceo since its inception in 2008. He will relinquish his role in January 2022 and focus on portfolio management as a member of the firm’s multi-sector bond team.

Hayward was a founding partner of TwentyFour and has been a member its executive committee for six years, and will remain so in his new role as ceo. He will be relinquishing day-to-day portfolio management responsibilities in the ABS business but remain a member of the firm’s asset allocation committee. The three existing partners in the ABS business - Rob Ford, Douglas Charleston and Aza Teeuwen, alongside eight other investment professionals - will continue to drive that strategy.

TwentyFour will also be expanding its executive committee with a further two partners - Eoin Walsh and Sujan Nadarajah - following the addition of John Magrath earlier in the year.

North America
Greystone has expanded its commercial team with two new hires. Gary Stellato joins the firm as md and counsel from Cantor Fitzgerald, where he was md and assistant general counsel. In the new role, Stellato will manage and offer legal oversight for the team’s structured finance transactions, having also previously served as an attorney at Sidley Austin and Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Meanwhile, Peter Fogarty will take on the role of director on the commercial team, and maintain responsibility for large loan credit and underwriting. Fogarty joins Greystone having previously worked in real estate structured finance at Société Générale, and alongside Stellato, will report to head of commercial and business development Scott Chisolm.