Gordon Lee & team UBS Pactual
second team Vanessa Quiroga, Marcelo Telles & team Credit Suisse
third team Carlos Peyrelongue & team BofA–Merrill Lynch
Working out of New York, Gordon Lee captains the UBS Pactual duo to the winner’s circle for a third straight year — and for the sixth time in the past seven years. Noting that Brazil’s low-income homebuilders benefit from “almost infinite demand,” the team urged investors to buy residential developer PDG Realty Empreendimentos e Participações way back in April 2007, at R11.50, and highlighted the call repeatedly since. By the end of July 2009, the stock was up 130.4 percent, to R26.50, outstripping the sector by 186.9 percentage points. Lee, 36, is “about the best analyst I’ve ever seen,” declares one money manager.
New co-leader Vanessa Quiroga helps Marcelo Telles guide the four-strong Credit Suisse squad to second place for a third consecutive year. In July 2008 the team, which is based in Mexico City and São Paulo, advised clients to short the ADRs of Cemex, at $21.56, amid the Mexico-based concrete producer’s difficulties in securing debt refinancing. In December, after the ADRs had plunged 61.5 percent, to $8.30, the team upgraded Cemex to neutral. Through July the ADRs gained 13.1 percent, to $9.39.
Repeating in third place is the Mexico City–based BofA-Merrill trio directed by Carlos Peyrelongue, who also leads the No. 2 team in Mexico. In December the team recommended Mexican homebuilder Corp. GEO, at 16.16 pesos, on its growing market share. By the end of July, the stock had surged 73.8 percent, to 28.09 pesos.
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