Financial research firm MSCI will be acquiring First Street, a provider of physics-based climate risk data and analytics for every property in the world.
MSCI will pay US$120 ($156) million in cash for the acquisition, with additional payments during the first two years following an expected 3Q2026 closing if certain revenue thresholds are achieved. Upon the deal’s completion, First Street's financial results will be reported within MSCI's sustainability and climate segment.
The acquisition will see MSCI integrate First Street’s data and tools into MSCI’s climate and geospatial solutions, enabling quantified assessments of financially relevant physical climate risk at any geographic coordinate and across more than two billion structures worldwide.
These additional capabilities can help institutions meet rising regulatory and reporting requirements while supporting physical risk management and adaptation and resilience planning, notes MSCI, which is headquartered in New York city along with First Street.
MSCI head of sustainability and climate Richard Mattison believes that its clients will benefit from the integration of data from First Street in MSCI’s existing solutions. “Investors, lenders and insurers are increasingly looking for more in-depth and actionable analysis of the physical risk held in the footprint of a company’s operations and investments,” he says. “The integration of First Street data into MSCI’s existing geospatial capabilities will enable clients to be better informed about their changing risk exposures and translate that directly into financial decision-making.”
First Street founder and CEO Matthew Eby says, “Joining MSCI puts our property-level science in front of the world’s leading investors, lenders and insurers and turns climate risk from a disclosure exercise into a daily input for how capital is priced and allocated.”
