CFRA Agrees to Buy ETF Data Provider First Bridge -- Update
August 05 2019 - 12:22PM
Dow Jones News
By Britton O'Daly
CFRA LLC, a New York-based investment-research firm, has agreed
to acquire data-and-analytics firm First Bridge Data LLC.
CFRA said the acquisition of First Bridge will allow the company
to base its research on more in-house data instead of relying on
third-party data providers. CFRA competes with larger research
providers including Morningstar Inc. and Thomson Reuters Corp. to
provide institutional investors and wealth managers with insights
into the performance and potential of fund managers.
"We do the research, but we don't own the underlying data and
analytics, " said CFRA Chief Executive Peter de Boer in an
interview. "By owning that and investing in that, we set ourselves
up to compete with companies like Morningstar."
Both CFRA and First Bridge are private. Financial terms of the
transaction weren't disclosed.
In a news release, CFRA said its research team comprises 75
analysts spread across the U.S., England and Asia. Mr. de Boer
declined to give any information on the size or revenue of First
Bridge, which has a focus on exchange-traded funds. According to
ZoomInfo.com, a business-to-business information provider, First
Bridge has 21 employees.
Mr. de Boer said that acquiring First Bridge will put CFRA in
line with Morningstar as the only companies who can "provide the
holistic research and the underlying data and analytics." He added
that this recent acquisition isn't about "efficiencies" or
consolidating their own business, but expanding CFRA's capabilities
for clients.
Mr. de Boer also said that CFRA would be able to distinguish
itself by not having the same "conflicts in their business" as
Morningstar. In November 2018, Morningstar launched nine of its own
mutual funds, allowing the company to report on both the
performance of fund managers to investors while offering competing
funds of its own.
A Morningstar spokeswoman said that there are "strict governance
rules to ensure the funds can accomplish the goal we set for them
and operate without conflicts of interest."
The acquisition of First Bridge follows CFRA's purchase of
S&P Global Inc.'s equity- and fund-research business in late
2016. CFRA was founded in 1994 as the "Center for Financial
Research and Analysis."
Aniket Ullal, who founded First Bridge in 2011 and published a
book in 2013 about ETF investment advice, is joining CFRA as an
employee.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 05, 2019 12:07 ET (16:07 GMT)
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