- Current report filing (8-K)
July 06 2009 - 4:16PM
Edgar (US Regulatory)
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND
EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington,
D.C. 20549
FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13
or 15(d) of
the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report (Date of earliest
event reported):
July 6, 2009
MORNINGSTAR,
INC.
(Exact name of registrant as
specified in its charter)
Illinois
|
|
000-51280
|
|
36-3297908
|
(State or
other jurisdiction
of incorporation)
|
|
(Commission
File Number)
|
|
(I.R.S.
Employer
Identification No.)
|
22 West
Washington Street
Chicago, Illinois 60602
(Address of principal executive
offices)
(312) 696-6000
(Registrants telephone number,
including area code)
N/A
(Former name or former address,
if changed since last report)
Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to
simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the
following provisions:
o
Written communications pursuant to Rule 425
under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)
o
Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12
under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)
o
Pre-commencement communications
pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR
240.14d-2(b))
o
Pre-commencement communications
pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR
240.13e-4(c))
Item 7.01. Regulation FD
Disclosure.
The following information is included in this Current Report on Form 8-K
as a result of Morningstar, Inc.s policy regarding public disclosure of
corporate information. Answers to additional inquiries, if any, that comply
with this policy are scheduled to become available on August 7, 2009.
Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This current report on Form 8-K contains forward-looking statements as
that term is used in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These statements are based on our current expectations about future events or
future financial performance. Forward-looking statements by their nature
address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, and often contain
words such as may, could, expect, intend, plan, seek, anticipate,
believe, estimate, predict, potential, or continue. These statements
involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the events we
discuss not to occur or to differ significantly from what we expect. For us,
these risks and uncertainties include, among others, general industry
conditions and competition, including the current global financial crisis that
began in 2007; the impact of market volatility on revenue from asset-based
fees; damage to our reputation resulting from claims made about possible
conflicts of interest; liability for any losses that result from an actual or
claimed breach of our fiduciary duties; financial services industry
consolidation; a prolonged outage of our database and network facilities;
challenges faced by our non-U.S. operations; and the availability of free or
low-cost investment information.
A more complete description of these risks and uncertainties can be found
in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
2008. If any of these risks and uncertainties materialize, our actual future
results may vary significantly from what we expected. We do not undertake to
update our forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future
events.
Investor Questions and Answers: July 2009
We plan to make written responses available addressing investor questions
about our business on the first Friday of every month. The following answers
respond to selected questions received through July 1, 2009. We intend to
answer as many questions as time allows, although we will not answer product
support questions through this channel. We may wait to respond to a given
question until the following month if we need more time to research the answer.
If you would like to submit a question, please send an e-mail to
investors@morningstar.com, contact us via fax at 312-696-6009, or write to us
at the following address:
Morningstar, Inc.
Investor Relations
22 W. Washington
Chicago, IL 60602
Morningstar Licensed Data
1.
I would like to get a better understanding of how Licensed Data,
Morningstars largest product, is actually used by institutions. Can you
approximate the percentage of Licensed Data revenue used for:
·
Marketing an investment product (using the Morningstar Rating, Style
Box, etc.)
·
Internal research
·
Resold or redistributed (Yahoo, Google, WSJ, etc.)
·
Other major uses not listed above?
Many of our clients use Licensed
Data for more than one purpose, so its tough to determine a precise breakdown.
We can give you some approximate numbers based on the primary use of the data,
though. Morningstar Essentials, the subset of Licensed Data that includes our
2
proprietary statistics and is often
used for marketing and client communication purposes, accounts for about
one-fourth of total Licensed Data revenue. The second-largest primary use for
Licensed Data is for redistributors, where our data appears on other software
platforms, such as FactSet. Other major uses include investor fact sheets, data
updates for client-facing Web sites, internal research, and product
development.
Investment Consulting
2.
Have you lost or won any additional investment consulting clients beyond
those already disclosed?
As we mentioned in
last months Q&A, w
e always have
client wins and losses in the normal course of business, but we havent announced
any larger Investment Consulting contract losses since the two client
nonrenewals we previously disclosed. If we were to lose a larger contract, we
would generally disclose it.
Acquisition of Intech Pty Ltd
3.
Can you provide some detail on the investment management/consulting
firm you acquired in Australia? Is this akin to Morningstar Associates or
Ibbotson? Who are its key customers and what is its competitive position in
Australia? Are there any details you can provide in terms of how profitable the
business is, how its AUM has trended in recent years, and the nature of
superannuation in that country, etc.?
On June 30, our Australian
subsidiary completed its previously announced acquisition of Intech Pty Ltd, a
provider of multimanager and investment portfolio solutions in Australia, from
IOOF Transition 3 Pty Ltd., a subsidiary of IOOF Holdings Limited. Intech was
founded in 1989 and advises some of Australias major superannuation funds,
institutional clients, and investment platforms.
Intech is similar to our Ibbotson
Associates subsidiary. It provides both advisory (asset consulting) and
implemented consulting services (investment management services through various
multi-manager products covering a range of diversified, single-sector, and
alternative strategies).
Intech provides services to large
superannuation (pension) funds and products to financial advisers through several
leading platforms in the Australian market. Some of its major clients include government
funds, corporate and industry superannuation funds, and financial services
companies. It is an established player in this area, but has a smaller market
position than some of its competitors, such as Russell, Mercer, and JANA
Investment Advisers.
Intech currently has about A$3.5 billion
in assets under management across 29 multi-manager investment trusts. Assets
under management declined to about A$4 billion as of year-end 2008, compared
with about A$10.2 billion as of year-end 2007. While assets under management
have declined in 2008 and 2009, we believe that partly reflects factors related
to a previous change in ownership and doesnt fully reflect Intechs strong
investment capability.
We view this acquisition as an
opportunity to accelerate the development of our consulting and asset
management business in the Australian market. Weve acquired an experienced team
specializing in areas such as risk management, quantitative analysis, and
alternative asset research; an established brand and client base; and
additional data to support our global separate account database. In addition,
we plan to leverage Intechs platform to broaden distribution for our global
investment products, such as Morningstar Direct.
At the core of the superannuation
system in Australia is the compulsory contribution of 9% of salary that
employers must pay to a superannuation scheme in addition to a range of tax
incentives to encourage additional contributions. Because of this system,
Australia has one of the more developed markets for investment management and
advice globally.
3
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
|
MORNINGSTAR, INC.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Date: July 6, 2009
|
By:
|
/s/ Richard E. Robbins
|
|
Name:
|
Richard E. Robbins
|
|
Title:
|
General Counsel and Corporate
Secretary
|
4
Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Morningstar (NASDAQ:MORN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024