David Nangle & team Renaissance
Renaissance second team Paul Formanko & team J.P. Morganthird team Cristina Marzea, Ecem Nalbantgil & team BofA Merrill Lynch
On top for a third straight year is the RenCap quartet conducted by Moscow-based David Nangle, 34. “They have excellent local contacts,” lauds one supporter. Enthusiasts single out September upgrades from hold to buy on Kazakhstan’s Kazkommertsbank, at 368 tenge, on the commercial lender’s successful debt repayment, and the global depositary receipts of VTB Bank, at $3.56, largely a trading call on the Russian firm’s low valuation. By the end of January, KKB had shot up a whopping 79.3 percent, to 660 tenge, and VTB had leapt 41 percent, to $5.02. The stocks outperformed the sector by 60.8 and 25.3 points, respectively.
London-based Paul Formanko leads his five-member J.P. Morgan squad up a notch to second place. In June the analysts raised Hungary’s OTP Bank, a consumer and commercial lender, from neutral to overweight as a bargain at 3,360 forints. Through January the shares jumped 74 percent, to 5,848 forints, and led the sector by 30 points. The J.P. Morgan team provides “sober assessments and timely recommendations,” according to one client.
Slipping one spot to third is the six-member BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research squad guided by London-based Cristina Marzea and newcomer Ecem Nalbantgil, who replaced Richard Thomas in August, when Thomas moved to spearhead European banks credit research. Praised for their ability to “differentiate risk levels during the downturn,” as one supporter puts it, the analysts garner high marks for April’s upgrade of Türkiye Halk Bankası from neutral to buy, at 4.58 Turkish lira, on valuation. Through January the consumer lender’s shares more than doubled, to Tl10.30.
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