BeyondNetZero, the climate-focused unit of General Atlantic, has acquired a majority stake in Dutch ESG benchmark provider GRESB from Summit Partners, subject to regulatory approval, according to an announcement.
GRESB was created in 2009 by a group of pension funds and Maastricht University. Its annual assessment has become one of the most frequently-cited ESG frameworks for real estate and infrastructure investors. Investor members of GRESB pay an annual fee to report on ESG-related data points in their portfolios annually. GRESB compiles this data to produce benchmarks and standards that members can work towards. More than 2,000 property companies, REITs, funds and developers with $7.2 trillion in assets took part in the real estate assessment last year, according to its website. GRESB also provides products to real assets fund managers to assist with sustainability issues such as TCFD alignment and SFDR reporting.
Summit Partners acquired GRESB from GBCI in 2020. Under Summit’s ownership, GRESB attained B-Corp certification.
GA closed its first fund under the BeyondNetZero strategy on $3.5 billion in December 2022, New Private Markets data shows. Its LPs include Border to Coast Pensions Partnership ($110 million), LG Chem ($150 million) and PFR Ventures (undisclosed).
The value of the transaction was not disclosed. General Atlantic declined to comment when contacted by NPM. Summit Partners did not respond to a request for comment.
The deal is the latest in a now well-established trend of private markets investors bringing ESG service providers into their portfolios. Blackstone, KKR and Carlyle are among those to have invested in such companies since 2021.
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