CHICAGO/TOKYO, July 2, 2015—Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, has acquired its remaining 29 percent ownership interest in Ibbotson Associates Japan K.K. (IAJ) from the company’s management, Katsunari Yamaguchi, president, and Tadaaki Komatsubara, chief investment officer. Yamaguchi and Komatsubara will continue in their roles with the company.
Established in 2000 by Ibbotson Associates, which Morningstar acquired in 2006, IAJ is an investment and advisory services firm. Drawing on core capabilities in asset allocation, manager research, and portfolio construction, the company helps banks, securities companies, and asset management firms in Japan create portfolios and other investment solutions to meet investor needs.
“Japan is a key market for Morningstar, and the acquisition reflects the close cooperation in recent years between IAJ and Morningstar to provide leading global equity research, indexes, and other world-class investment strategies to our clients,” Yamaguchi said.
About Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, and retirement plan providers and sponsors. Morningstar provides data on approximately 500,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 15 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries and had more than $179 billion in assets under advisement and management as of March 31, 2015. The company has operations in 27 countries.
Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This press release 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, liability for any losses that result from an actual or claimed breach of our fiduciary duties; failing to maintain and protect our brand, independence, and reputation; failing to differentiate our products and continuously create innovative, proprietary research tools; failing to respond to technological change, keep pace with new technology developments, or adopt a successful technology strategy; liability related to our storage of personal information related to individuals as well as portfolio and account-level information; compliance failures, regulatory action, or changes in laws applicable to our investment advisory or credit rating operations; downturns in the financial sector, global financial markets, and global economy; the effect of market volatility on revenue from asset-based fees; a prolonged outage of our database, technology-based products and services, or network facilities; challenges faced by our non-U.S. operations, including the concentration of data and development work at our offshore facilities in China and India; and trends in the mutual fund industry, including the increasing popularity of passively managed investment vehicles. A more complete description of these risks and uncertainties can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014. 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.
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Media Contacts:
In Japan: Makiko Osaki, +81332397701 or osaki@ibbotson.co.jp
In the United States: Nadine Youssef, +1 312 696-6601 or nadine.youssef@morningstar.com