Institutional Shareholder Services, a provider of corporate governance solutions to the global financial community, this week announced that its parent company, MSCI, has entered into a definitive agreement with Vestar Capital Partners to acquire ISS for $364 million.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter, subject to customary closing conditions. ISS will operate independently once the transaction is complete. The current ISS executive team will remain in place.

MSCI acquired ISS in 2010 as part of its acquisition of RiskMetrics Group. ISS currently has close to 700 employees operating across 15 global offices in 10 countries. Its 1,700 clients include institutional investors, who rely on ISS‘ objective and impartial proxy research and data to vote portfolio holdings, as well as corporations focused on governance risk mitigation.

Morgan Stanley acted as financial adviser, and Davis Polk & Wardwell acted as legal adviser to MSCI on the transaction. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett served as legal adviser to Vestar Capital Partners.