Andrew C. Wiechmann
Chief Financial Officer at MSCI
Thanks, Baer, and hi, everyone. The record results for the quarter and for the year reflect the enormous opportunity set available to MSCI and our long-term actions to identify, invest in and capture those opportunities. Each of our product segments, index, analytics, ESG and climate and all other private assets recorded their highest quarter ever for recurring subscription sales and net new recurring sales.We drove very strong double-digit sales and subscription run rate growth in each of the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions, reflecting our ability to unlock the significant addressable markets in front of us. Our One MSCI ESG and climate franchise delivered 58% run rate growth year-over-year, adding $129 million of additional run rate during 2021. And looking forward, our longer-term sales pipeline across products and regions looks quite healthy.
Across the firm, our 13% organic subscription run rate growth was fueled by strength across nearly all dimensions, geographies, client segments and product segments. Index subscription run rate grew more than 12% year-over-year, our 32nd consecutive quarter or eighth consecutive year of achieving double-digit growth. Market cap-weighted subscription modules, which represent approximately 75% of index subscription run rate, grew 9% while we recorded strong double-digit growth in our investment thesis index modules, particularly in areas like factors, ESG and climate, which collectively drove 28% year-over-year subscription run rate growth while customized index subscription modules grew 18%.Analytics recorded 5% organic revenue growth and 7% organic run rate growth with double-digit organic growth in both equity portfolio management tools and fixed income portfolio management tools, reflecting the strategic business wins Baer described earlier. Importantly, our strong profitability growth across analytics is fueling company-wide operating leverage and enabling us to make investments in key growth areas across the firm.
In ESG and climate, we drove outstanding organic growth of 53% in revenue and 47% in organic subscription run rate with strong demand from new and existing clients alike. To put this in context, since MSCI's acquisition of risk metrics in 2010, it took almost 10 years for the products in our ESG and Climate segment to cross $100 million of run rate, which happened at the end of 2019. In the two years since, we've doubled that, and in 2021, with nearly $200 million in run rate.Within all other private assets, we are building momentum with organic revenue growth of 13% while benefiting from growing traction with our climate offering. Additionally, we're seeing strong early traction from RCA, which added $76 million of run rate as of 12/31.As we had indicated previously, we expect the annualized adjusted EBITDA margin for the All Other segment to be close to the mid-teens for full year 2022, impacted by some employee retention and integration expenses as well as the reallocation of certain internal costs to the segment.
Turning to asset-based fees. Despite year-end volatility, we observed healthy cash inflows across geographic exposures and product areas and equity ETFs linked to MSCI indexes. This included healthy inflows into products with emerging markets, developed markets ex-U.S. and U.S. exposures. AUM equity ETFs linked to MSCI ESG and climate indexes as of year-end was $227 billion, growing a tremendous 114% from a year ago, with cash inflows of nearly $34 billion during the quarter, resulting in more than 75% market share in global ESG and climate equity ETF flows. The period-end basis point fees were 2.54 bps. The quarter-over-quarter decline was almost entirely driven by mix shift, with higher growth in lower fee products.
Solid operating performance and notably strong revenue growth drove nearly all of the adjusted EPS outperformance in the quarter, with some puts and takes from higher tax rate and interest expense. Even in the context of business investments we've made, we drove modest margin expansion during the quarter, which continues to be a key objective. Excluding results from the RCA business, MSCI's adjusted EBITDA margin across the firm would be roughly 59.3% for the quarter, which would imply roughly 150 basis points of margin expansion. We also continued our track record of delivering strong free cash flows of over $880 million for the full year or growth of over 16%. This was also higher than our prior expectations as we did not make accelerated incremental cash tax payments in the fourth quarter that we had previously assumed as a result of our latest views of the tax environment.
Turning to capital allocation and our balance sheet. Including December and January month-to-date through Tuesday, we have repurchased approximately 925,000 shares or close to $480 million. Also, MSCI's Board of Directors has authorized the company to opportunistically explore financing options, although any potential financing is subject to market and other conditions and there can be no assurance as to the timing or certainty of a transaction. As a top priority, we remain focused on reinvesting in our business across the Triple-Crown areas that we've highlighted today, including custom, ESG, climate and other investment thesis indexes; fixed income and private asset content and solutions; data and technology capabilities; as well as client coverage, product and research enhancements. Additionally, we will continue to pursue opportunistic MP&A in highly strategic growth areas for us.
Turning now to our full year 2022 guidance, which we published this morning. Our expense guidance range primarily reflects the investments we are making to fuel continued growth as well as enhance the client experience. Our projected level of spend assumes relatively flat market levels for the year. And as always, our expenses may flex up and down depending on market conditions. As a reminder, we expect normal seasonality in our expenses during the year with certain compensation and benefits expenses typically being higher in the first quarter. Our free cash flow range continues to reflect our confidence in strong collections and operating performance. Our tax rate guidance range assumes no significant changes in global tax regimes. Excluding the impact of combining with the lower-margin RCA business, we would expect margin expansion in 2022 across the balance of the company.
In summary, as both Henry and Baer have noted, we are seeing unprecedented levels of demand for our offerings, and we are focused on capitalizing on those opportunities. We have an all-weather franchise that positions us well for all operating environments, and we're excited for the continued growth opportunities ahead of us in 2022 and beyond.
With that, operator, please open the line for questions.