Months after the SEC’s announced shift toward compiling additional data on companies’ Environmental, Social and Governance metrics, getting hard data on company progress is still a challenge, said panelists at Mergers & Acquisitions’ The Best in M&A Speak virtual event yesterday. The event honored the winners of the 2021 Top 10 Middle-Market Deals of the Year.

A key challenge is standardizing metrics across companies. A Limited Partner with positions across numerous funds could be inundated with ESG reports citing disparate measures, said Women’s Association of Venture and Equity board member and Fordham University private equity professor Sheryl Schwartz. “One of the challenges as an LP is you’re getting all different formats and all different information,” Schwartz said. “To get 120 quarterly reports and then each fund has 20 to 40 companies, there has to be a way of aggregating that data and coming up with conclusions. And that process has not yet been fully developed.” READ MORE