Notice of Intent to Award Sole Source

This notice is in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2, Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), Procurement Division is the contracting office for this procurement. The purpose of this notice is to announce the intent to award a firm-fixed-price contract on a sole source basis under the authority of FAR Subpart 13.106-1(b)(2) procedures, to CreditSights, Inc., 2 Park Ave., 24th Floor, New York, NY, 10016 (DUNS: 805968430) in accordance with FAR Part 12 and FAR Subpart 13.5 procedures for fifteen (15) user licenses for CreditSights Risk Products Subscription.

The PBGC, Corporate Finance & Restructuring Department (CFRD), requires a web-based subscription to access financial information regarding credit quality, debt obligation, and financial news information for the PBGC insured inventory of companies facing potential termination of pension plans. This information is utilized to assess the credit quality of pension plan sponsors and assists in the determination of whether to terminate a pension plan. The information is also used when called upon to attend a credit committee meeting for a potential bankruptcy case. The CFRD requires access to the information that is used by commercial lenders when making the termination decisions for the PBGC. The required product provides customized quarterly reports on any companies CFRD designates. Credit Sights is also one of the industry standard providers of credit quality information regarding public debt. CFRD needs access to the same information that is used by commercial lenders when making the termination decisions for this agency. CFRD financial analysts rely heavily on the information from Credit Sights to assist them with monitoring the credit quality, debt obligations, and financial news of the companies on the PBGC watch list. The information is also used when called upon to attend a credit committee meeting for a potential bankruptcy case. In addition, the following features and functionality are required: 1) Fundamental research Risk Module, 2) Ratings Models producing a medium-term stand-alone rating based on 5-year probability of default term structure for nearly 5,400 firms and coverage of 120 large private corporates 3) Industry standard credit quality information regarding public debt, and 4) Customized quarterly reports on any companies CFRD designates.

It is anticipated that purchase order award will be issued on or before August 21, 2020, with a one (1) year base period and four (4) one (1) year option periods of performance from August 24, 2020 through August 23, 2025, if all options are exercised. The applicable NAICS Code is 519130 (Internet Publishing and Broadcasting and Web Search Portals). This is not a request for competitive quotes. This notice of intent is for informational purposes only. However, all interested parties may submit their capability statements for the required services, which shall be considered by the agency if received by the Points of Contact (POC) listed below by 12:00 PM, EST, August 5, 2020, (reference Solicitation No. 16PBGC20Q0061). A determination to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses to this notice is solely with the discretion of the Government.

POCs: Christina Williams, Contracting Officer at williams.christina@pbgc.gov and Olena Evans, Contract Specialist, at Evans.Olena@pbgc.gov. Oral communications will not be accepted in response to this notice.