Word: settlement
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...Many of the firms themselves are already moving away from retail research. Thomas White International, which created a research consortium with four other firms to win settlement dollars, will go back to its main business of managing assets for institutional investors. Ross Smith Energy Group, a Canadian outfit that follows the oil and gas industries, is getting into investment banking. Three companies-Argus, Independent International Investment Research and Pipal Research-have joined with the London Stock Exchange to provide coverage of smaller firms willing to pay for it. Rapid Ratings is finding a hearty new revenue stream in doing analysis...
...like brokers. Still, "while the retail investor may not have been accessing that research directly, investment professionals were consuming it and then presenting it to their clients," says Michael Mayhew, chairman and director of research at Integrity Research Associates, a firm that tracks and evaluates research outfits. When the settlement money stops, he says, "retail investors will have less information. That's absolutely clear...
...drive to diversify doesn't only flow from the end of the global settlement. The independent research industry is influenced by plenty of other forces, too, especially a constant onslaught of new competition. "There are low barriers to entry, and with a lot of people on Wall Street out of work, it's pretty easy for an analyst to say, let me try my hand at that," says Mark Fichtel, a former president of the New York Mercantile Exchange and one of the Securities and Exchange Commission consultants who picked which independent research shops to use in the settlement...
...research line altogether. As institutional investors, particularly hedge funds, have taken a beating in the market and been forced to trim costs including staff, the demand for outside research has in some quarters actually increased. "There are different kinds of independent research," says Argus president John Eade. "As the settlement winds down, the focus is shifting away from ratings and reports to evolving forms, like expert networks and primary sources-meetings with our analysts, our institutional clients and different CEOs and CFOs we've gotten to know." But that analysis isn't making it into the hands of individual investors...
...bigger question may be, will the global settlement have any lasting impact-or do we lose something significant when the money for independent research stops in July? By some measures, the bias of investment-bank stock research has, in fact, changed since the late 1990s and early 2000s. Back then, only about 1% to 2% of the companies covered by banks carried a "sell" rating, according to research-tracker Investars. These days, that figure falls more in the 15% to 20% range-an indication, one might argue, that analysts are making tougher calls on the companies they cover. That probably...