Two of Europe's leading independent investment service providers within their fields, GES Investment Services and Manifest Information Services, today announce that they have formed a strategic partnership. Bringing together specialist research in environmental, social and governance issues with global proxy voting services, they present a fully-fledged European solution for Responsible Investment.

Sarah Wilson, Chief Executive of Manifest Information Services, said: "Informed Stewardship is now firmly on the agenda and our partnership offers investors a holistic solution to meet the challenges that high quality engagement bring. Both Manifest and GES have a strong commitment to providing market-leading, customer-driven solutions which is why this partnership is such a good fit."

Magnus Furugård, President and Managing Director of GES Investment Services, said: "This is an excellent advancement of our engagement services based on international guidelines for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues. Being able to provide proxy voting services through our partner Manifest, will enhance GES' and our clients' impact on company risk management of ESG."

Manifest is working closely with GES to integrate their incident watch and risk ratings into Manifest's tailored voting recommendations so that investors can create custom ESG voting guidelines. In return, GES will receive access to Manifest's governance data and proxy voting systems, which will reinforce both the foundation for GES' engagement activities as well as the feasibility of these.

For further information, please contact:

Sarah Wilson Chief Executive, Manifest Information Services Ltd
Phone: +44 1376 504503

Magnus Furugård, President and Managing Director, GES Investment Services
Phone: +46 8 787 99 11