S&P Global Inc Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Andrew Owen Nicholas - William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division - Analyst : Just wanted to ask maybe a bigger-picture question. Just wondering how you as a management team manage the different investment opportunities, growth initiatives, hiring plans for the stand-alone business with such a major merger expected to close later in the year. Are you a bit more hesitant to commit to multiyear projects, again, for the stand-alone business knowing that there could be higher apply opportunities that present themselves as a combined entity? Or do you just kind of keep your head down and run the existing business and address those opportunities when the time comes? I'm just curious, any insight on how you plan to manage that during the waiting period would be helpful.

Question: Andrew Owen Nicholas - William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division - Analyst : Great. That's helpful. And then as my follow-up, in the index business, I know you're still 6, 9 months away from closing. But I am curious if you have any initial thoughts on kind of the strategy or change in kind of distribution approach that might be required as you kind of focus on building out fixed income and multi-asset ETF products. Just trying to figure out how those businesses might differ from equity ETFs and that kind of ecosystem, if at all.