Zielke Research Consult GmbH-a research consultant company based in Aachen /Germany and Grant Thornton FDD a consultancy company based in Milan/Italy have concluded an agreement in which each other will help to sell its services to its home country.
Grant Thornton will produce ESG assessments on the published Corporate Social Responsibility Reports (CSR) and sustainable finance products based on the methodology developed by Zielke Research Consult. The latter has already been applied for the last six years on German and selected European insurers and have turned out to be a success story with more the 50% of market share in Germany. Grant Thornton will use this methodology and be seconded by Zielke Research Consult in order to develop the Italian market.
Zielke Research Consult on the other hand will commercialise Grant Thornton’s insurance ESG due diligence services which are necessary for instance in M&A transactions.
“I am very excited about this partnership which will help us to expand our ESG analytical methodology to other European countries. With the implementation of the CSRD this is a natural evolution to make sustainability reports more comparable country wise and bring a judgment whether a financial product is sustainable,” says managing partner of Zielke Research Consult Dr. Carsten Zielke. “With Grant Thornton we can provide an even more extensive service based on a European expertise. Recently we have expanded our service by analysing products of the leading Portuguese insurer Fidelidade. Italy is the next step.”
“We are glad to provide extra ESG services next to our insurance due diligence expertise to our home-based clients” adds Luca D’Onofrio, partner Insurance leader at Grant Thornton in Italy. “A pan European comparison will help our clients to become more attractive for both share- and policyholders. In addition, we will support the Italian Insurance market in improving the ESG financial communication and the development of ESG life products for the Italian market in line with the European best practices”.
About Zielke Research Consult
We are a consulting firm founded in 2013, specializing in ESG and financial analysis. We provide services and support to insurance companies, banks and asset management companies (financial market participants) in dealing with the changing regulatory environment in the areas of CSR and financial reporting.
With our young, motivated and diverse team of experts, we keep ourselves up-to-date with the latest developments in the field of financial and sustainability accounting in Europe and worldwide to provide our clients with tailored and needs-based advice. Our expertise enables us to qualify the sustainability legitimacy of financial products according to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Requirement (SFDR). Our goal is to have a positive impact on society through our projects. We are always striving to develop new methodologies in our research, taking into account the latest market and regulatory developments to create valuable contributions and outcomes for our clients.
Our managing partner, Dr. Carsten Zielke, is a member of renowned international bodies such as the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), FinDaTex and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS). Thus, we build the bridge between our clients and the decision makers. We represent the German Environment Agency (Bundesumweltamt) in ISO-working groups for sustainable finance.