Kayne Anderson ISC - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

Kayne Anderson ISC is Medium Risk.

Kayne Anderson ISC is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes. Kayne Anderson occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Medium Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	Lower Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	Medium Risk
Political Actions	No Data

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Kayne Anderson integrates ESG into its business practices. From its ESG Policy: “ESG integration goes hand in hand with good business” (1). The company is a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment, incorporating ESG issues into investment analysis, decision-making, and other business practices (2)(3). Kayne Anderson integrates DEI into its supply chain. From its 2022 ESG Report: “Partner with minority owned developers, sourcing and utilizing minority owned/led vendors, suppliers, banks, and investment banks to assist these firms to grow, scale, and thrive” (4). However, the company has not publicly canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (5).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Kayne Anderson does not discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs. The company focuses direct giving on education, mentorship, and career-oriented initiatives. It matches employee donations to religious organizations (1)(2).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Kayne Anderson offers DEI training to its employees (1). Kayne Anderson appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its supply chain. From its 2022 ESG Report: “Initiating a vendor diversity program with IT to collect data from Kayne vendors about their diversity composition, DE&I policies, and training” (2). Kayne Anderson does not publish a nondiscrimination policy (3).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Kayne Anderson is a signatory of the Institutional Limited Partners Association’s Diversity in Action Initiative, committing itself to specific actions that advance DEI within the governance and policies of the organization and the private equity industry more broadly (1)(2)(3). Kayne Anderson is committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2040 (4). Kayne Anderson supports DEI within its business practices, employing a DEI Council (5). The company supports ESG within its business practices. From its 2022 ESG Report: “At Kayne, we believe data is critical to the successful integration of ESG within the investment process. While access and quality of ESG data remains a significant challenge across the industry, Kayne has taken steps to further facilitate our access to ESG data relevant to current and potential investments. In 2022, we took measures to increase the availability of quality ESG data across many of the Firm’s investment strategies” (6).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Kayne Anderson donated $45,000 to Planting Pride Delray in 2019 (1). Otherwise, it has not used corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (2).

Criteria:

Uses corporate political actions and/or financial contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level:

N/A

Rationale:

Kayne Anderson does not operate a PAC or engage in lobbying at this time (1)(2)(3).