Goldman Sachs Acquires Dutch ESG Investment Management Firm

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Goldman Sachs is acquiring Dutch NN Investment Partners for approximately 1.6 billion euros (about 2.2066 trillion KRW), Bloomberg reported on the 19th (local time).

NN Investment Partners is a subsidiary asset management company of the Dutch insurance firm NN Group. NN Investment manages about $355 billion in assets, three-quarters of which are related to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) sectors.

This acquisition is the largest merger and acquisition since David Solomon took office as CEO of Goldman Sachs. CEO Solomon stated that NN's sustainable investment direction aligns with Goldman Sachs' goal of responsible investing and that it will expand Goldman Sachs' asset management business area.

Goldman Sachs expects to further expand its business in Europe through the acquisition of NN Investment. After Brexit (the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union), Goldman Sachs has been relocating hundreds of employees and tens of billions of dollars in assets from London to Paris, France; Frankfurt, Germany; Milan, Italy; and Madrid, Spain.

Bloomberg explained that with the recent spotlight on ESG investing, the market size for related investment products has grown to $35 trillion. Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that the market size will exceed $50 trillion by 2025.

However, Bloomberg noted that the criteria for precisely distinguishing ESG investment products remain ambiguous, reporting that investment products claiming ESG investment between 2018 and 2020 but ruled by European regulatory authorities as not ESG investments amount to $2 trillion in scale.

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