3.20.2007 - 07:30am ET

(CSRwire) NEW YORK, NY - March 20, 2007 - Innovest Strategic Value Advisors (Innovest), an international investment research firm, is proud to announce a cooperative partnership with GovernanceMetrics International (GMI), the leading global corporate governance research and ratings firm.

The new arrangement allows clients to access the research expertise of both firms, thereby providing an additional perspective on a company’s rating and extra-financial performance.

Howard Sherman, President and CEO of GMI says, "Given the threat of increased regulation and financial exposure due to global warming, GMI wanted to provide our customers with additional information on this important topic. We are happy to have teamed up with Innovest, whose expertise in this area is unmatched. We see the convergence of corporate governance and environmental risk analysis as a natural evolution, as investors search for more innovative ways to properly assess the risk and potential value of their portfolio holdings."

Approximately 1,500 company reports published by GMI will carry an environmental risk rating from Innovest. Similarly, Innovest's company profiles will include GMI's assessment of a company’s corporate governance standing in tandem with Innovest's governance rating. Hewson Baltzell, President of Innovest says, "Corporate governance is a fundamental pillar of Innovest’s methodology. Given the complexities and controversies surrounding corporate governance of late, we wanted to offer our clients an additional perspective from a well respected firm that focuses solely on these issues."

The new partnership is no extra charge to clients.

About Innovest

Founded in 1995, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors is an internationally recognized investment research and advisory firm specializing in analyzing companies’ performance on environmental, social, and strategic governance issues, with a particular focus on their impact on competitiveness, profitability, and share price performance. Innovest currently has offices in New York City, Toronto, San Francisco, London, Paris, Sydney, and Tokyo.

Ratings and research reports from Innovest Strategic Advisors analyzing the environmental, social and governance performance of over 1,750 companies and their industries, including the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations, is available at www.csrwire.com/reports/independent.

About GMI

GovernanceMetrics International's corporate governance research and rating services, covering 4,000 companies worldwide, are used by leading pension funds, fund managers, banks, insurance companies, public accounting firms and regulatory agencies in 16 different countries. The firm’s governance and accountability ratings are based on hundreds of data points per company and cover six broad categories of analysis. Rating criteria are based on a number of well-regarded global corporate governance codes including those developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Please visit www.gmiratings.com for additional information.

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