EDHEC Business School and its Endowment Fund announce an agreement to sell Scientific Infra & Private Assets (SIPA) to PEI Group
This article was first published on the edhec.edu website - 23/03/2026
EDHEC Business School and the EDHEC Endowment Fund are pleased to announce today the signing of an agreement to sell Scientific Infra & Private Assets (SIPA) to PEI Group, a global provider of business intelligence and data analytics services.
Six years after the EDHEC Endowment Fund sold Scientific Beta to the Singapore Exchange, this transaction is further proof of the success of EDHEC's strategy to harness the value of its academic research and ensure its long-term financial independence.
A non-profit organisation under French Law, EDHEC has developed a distinctive funding model for its research activities, grounded in the belief that academic work should deliver tangible value for both business and students. The school's Endowment Fund, whose mission is to support EDHEC's activities in higher education and research, is instrumental in bringing this vision to life. By divesting SIPA, the Endowment Fund aims to unlock substantial new long-term funding, enabling the school to deepen its research and enrich its programmes in ways that will directly benefit future generations of students.
This virtuous, entrepreneurial model resonates with the ambitions of the EDHEC Generations 2050 strategic plan, through which the school commits to actively participating in the transformation of business via its research centres and student programmes. This divestiture will strengthen the school's investment capacity and enable it to accelerate the plan's deployment through 2028.
Transforming academic research into concrete solutions
Scientific Infra & Private Assets (SIPA) provides indices, benchmarks and rating tools for infrastructure and private equity investors. Its infraMetrics®, privateMetrics® and privateAlpha® products stem from the research and development activities of the EDHEC Infrastructure & Private Assets Research Institute (EIPA), established in 2016 by EDHEC Business School. Combining academic rigour with practical applications, SIPA specialises in integrating quantitative research into private asset investment strategies.
With around one million asset valuations calculated each month, the data provided by SIPA achieves a high level of robustness and granularity, enabling comparisons that are significantly superior to those based on proxies or expert estimates. Together, PEI and SIPA will offer a comprehensive suite of market analysis, fund, company and transaction data, as well as indices and benchmarks. This offering will enable strategy, risk, and investment teams to make more informed investment decisions, with greater precision and transparency.
Through this transaction, PEI Group is also entering into a long-term partnership with EDHEC Business School and EIPA, ensuring the continued academic development of the quantitative methodologies underpinning SIPA’s technology.
“EDHEC's scientific ventures — such as Scientific Beta, SIPA, Scientific Portfolio, and Scientific Climate Ratings — were created to transform our academic research into concrete, high-impact solutions for the industry. This acquisition of SIPA by PEI demonstrates the relevance of our strategy, which creates value for both EDHEC and market participants. SIPA's success encourages us to invest ever more in scientific research and its developments, in turn enhancing the Endowment Fund's capacity to strengthen EDHEC's research institutes, its programmes, and the support provided to its students," said Emmanuel Métais, Dean of EDHEC Business School.
Photo by Andreas Brücker on Unsplash
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