2023 Annual Report

Dear fellow shareholders,

In 1960, Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt published a famous article on the decline of America’s railroad industry. The railroads had lost customers, Levitt explained, “because they assumed themselves to be in the railroad business rather than in the transportation business.”

Operating Revenue (in millions)

MSCI has always embraced that message. From our earliest days, we never thought of ourselves as being in the “index business.” Instead, we were in the business of helping clients build better investment portfolios.

Indexes were of course the foundation of our company, but MSCI talked about our mission in much broader terms. We constantly asked: “What is the next big thing that will affect investment portfolios around the world?”

This mindset has helped us anticipate key shifts across the investment landscape. As a result, we now have a much larger and more diversified franchise than we did even five years ago.

In 2023, MSCI once again confirmed that our franchise can deliver in any environment. Despite market volatility and cautious attitudes among clients, we maintained strength across all our segments.

For the full year, we delivered overall revenue growth of 12.5%, diluted earnings-per-share (EPS) growth of 34.2%, adjusted EPS growth of 18.1%, a retention rate of 94.7%, and share repurchases of nearly $459 million. Over the past 11 years, MSCI has repurchased more than 40% of our shares outstanding, worth a combined $5.8 billion, at an average price of about $117 per share, creating enormous value for our shareholders.

Meanwhile, in 2023, assets under management (AUM) in equity ETF products linked to MSCI indexes reached an all-time record of $1.47 trillion, and AUM in non-listed products linked to MSCI indexes, such as separately managed accounts and other institutional and retail fund wrappers, hit a near-record level of close to $3.2 trillion.

As these numbers show, we have successfully balanced long-term strategy and short-term execution.

For more information on our business, operations and financial condition as of and for the year ended December 31, 2023, please review our 2023 Annual Report.

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