IHS Markit, a provider of benchmark indices for fixed income and credit markets, has entered into a strategic partnership with Cambridge Associates, a global investment firm with a global presence in private capital markets and a provider of private investment benchmarks.
As part of the partnership, IHS Markit will have exclusive rights to distribute the Cambridge Associates benchmarks in aggregated and anonymous form via digital formats to end users, data redistributors and reporting and analytics platforms. Cambridge Associates will remain responsible for fund manager relations, data collection, benchmark development and production, as well as managing the security and confidentiality of its datasets.
“Our combined perspective on the private markets and proven ability to bring innovative financial product structures to the global marketplace creates an exciting opportunity to advance investor access to private investments,” says Sophia Dancygier, SVP and Global Head of Indices at IHS Markit. “Working in collaboration with Cambridge Associates, we will deliver a broader range of products which aim to optimise the cross-asset workflow for institutional investors.”
“We are really excited about this partnership. Our objective was to find a like-minded partner who can work with us to help investors realise the full potential of our widely adopted private investment benchmarks,” said Rich Carson, Managing Director at Cambridge Associates.
“In recent years, the users of our benchmarks have become more sophisticated: they want more information, more customised benchmarks, more ways to incorporate the benchmarks into their decision-making and workflows, more distribution options and integration into their preferred reporting and analytics platforms. Cambridge Associates is first and foremost an investment firm, and we are confident that working together with IHS Markit, an established global index provider with unique private markets insights, can help us better meet these demands,” says Carson.
Private investment benchmarks can be leveraged for a variety of uses, including research, capital raising, performance measurement, risk management, valuation and asset allocation. For General Partners (GPs) and Limited Partners (LPs) specifically, the benchmarks can help identify investment opportunities, support the fund manager selection process and provide data-driven intelligence to improve portfolio returns and better manage risks.
