BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research Hires SRI and Sustainability Research Team

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)– BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research today announced that Sarbjit Nahal and Valery Lucas-Leclin have joined the group as senior SRI and Sustainability analysts, reporting to Simon Greenwell, head of EMEA Equity Research. Nahal and Lucas-Leclin will focus on leading the active integration of material environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues across all Research disciplines via sector and thematic reports and quantitative models. They are based in London.

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Nahal and Lucas-Leclin join from Société Générale, where they were consistently highly ranked, most recently placing first in the SRI category of the 2010 Thomson Extel Survey.

Nahal previously worked at Credit Mutuel and Vigeo, Europe’s largest CSR and SRI research and rating agency, and The International Council on Human Rights Policy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Toronto, a Bachelor of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall Law School and a Master of Laws degree from The University of London. He is fluent in French and Punjabi.

Lucas-Leclin previously worked at Credit Mutuel, Innovest and Arese, all of which are specialist SRI ratings agencies. He graduated from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), and holds a master’s degree in French modern history. He is fluent in French.

Greenwell said: “ESG factors are now integrated at $6.8trn (€5trn) of internally active managed assets worldwide, which is 7 percent of the total market. Sarbjit and Valery will be spearheading our SRI research effort globally, confirming our commitment to this space and integrating SRI thinking into our overall research product.”

The BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research franchise covers over 3,100 stocks globally and ranks in the top tier in many external surveys. Most recently, the group was named 2010 Top Global Broker (second consecutive year), Top Europe Broker, No. 2 U.S. Broker and No. 3 Asia broker by Financial Times/StarMine. The team was also named Best Brokerage by Forbes/Zacks for the second consecutive year.

In addition, the group was named No. 1 in the 2010 Institutional Investor All-Emerging Europe and All-Latin America Research team surveys and No. 3 in the 2010 Institutional Investor All-America Equity, All-Fixed Income and All-Europe Research team surveys. The group was also the winner of Emerging Markets’ EM Research Global Award for 2010.

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Source: Bank of America Merrill Lynch