EthiFinance and ESG Book Merge to Create European Ratings Champion

EthiFinance and ESG Book have agreed to combine, creating what the two companies describe as one of Europe's largest independent credit and sustainability rating agencies. The merger unites EthiFinance's credit and sustainability ratings with ESG Book's data and technology platform, forming a group of more than 300 experts across Europe, the US, India and Japan that will operate under the EthiFinance brand. Combined, the companies cover more than 10,000 companies globally, rising to 76,000 for certain datasets, serving over 500 clients.

 

Why Combining Credit and Sustainability Ratings Matters

 

The strategic logic centres on a gap in the market: few firms offer both credit ratings and sustainability ratings from a single European provider at scale. Credit ratings assess the likelihood a borrower repays its debt, while sustainability ratings assess environmental, social and governance factors, and the two have traditionally been produced by separate specialist firms, often based in the United States. By combining both under one roof, the merged company argues it can strengthen the link between financial and non-financial risk analysis, treating a company's sustainability profile and its creditworthiness as related rather than separate assessments.

That combination is particularly relevant given how sustainability data increasingly feeds into financial risk. As climate transition risk and regulatory exposure become factors that credit analysts weigh alongside traditional financial metrics, a single provider offering both disciplines can potentially model how ESG factors flow through to credit risk more coherently than two firms working from separate methodologies and datasets.

 

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Targeting the Private Markets Data Gap

 

A specific claim behind the deal is the ability to address sustainability data gaps in private markets, companies and assets that are not publicly listed and therefore not subject to the same disclosure requirements as public companies. Public company ESG data has become increasingly standardised through frameworks like the EU's sustainability reporting rules, but private companies, private equity portfolios and smaller issuers often lack comparable data, which limits investors' ability to assess sustainability risk across their full portfolios. The combined company is positioning its private-markets coverage as a differentiator from larger, more public-market-focused rivals.

The merger also reflects a wider consolidation trend in sustainability data and ratings, a sector that has seen significant investment and acquisition activity as demand for ESG information has grown alongside tightening disclosure regulation in the EU and elsewhere. Both companies frame the deal explicitly as building a European alternative to the American ratings and data providers that have dominated the global sustainability data market, arguing the region needs firms with deep local market knowledge that can still operate at global scale.

 

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What the Combined Company Offers

 

The merged group's product suite spans ESG and credit ratings, sustainability and credit data, portfolio analytics, regulatory reporting, benchmarking and supply chain risk management, delivered through what the companies describe as an integrated technology platform giving clients access to data and analytics through shared infrastructure. EthiFinance chief executive Carol Sirou framed the deal as building infrastructure with European roots and global reach, while ESG Book's Justin Fitzpatrick pointed to the combination of local market knowledge and global capability as positioning the group for the next phase of sustainable finance's development.

EthiFinance itself is registered with the European Securities and Markets Authority and recognised by both the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and the European Banking Authority, giving the combined entity regulatory standing across several European financial oversight bodies. The companies say further details will follow in September. Whether the combined platform genuinely closes the private-markets data gap it describes, and whether it can compete at scale against established US ratings providers, will determine whether this merger produces the European champion its founders are positioning it to become.

 

Source: EthiFinance