Alan Alanis & team J.P. Morgan
The buy side says: “Alan Alanis has an uncanny strategic mind.”
J.P. Morgan claims the top spot for the first time since 2003, this time under the direction of Alan Alanis. In June 2009 the New York–based duo broke with the consensus and urged investors to buy the American depositary receipts of Cía. Cervecerías Unidas, at $32.25, on the belief that the Chilean beverage distributor would enjoy strong sales growth thanks to aggressive expansion of its wine offerings. They were right: CCU’s domestic wine sales jumped 18.2 percent, and Chilean wine exports surged 33.2 percent, year-over-year in the first half of 2010.
By late July 2010 the stock had bubbled up 64.1 percent, to $52.92, leaving the sector’s 42.2 percent advance looking all wet. Alanis, 41, earned an MBA at the University of Chicago in 1993 and joined J.P. Morgan in 2008 after working at Latin America’s largest beverage distributor, Fomento Económico Mexicano, or Femsa. “Alan Alanis is a diligent analyst who is able to work with J.P. Morgan’s global Food & Beverages team to generate a broader view on the companies under his coverage,” attests one backer. “He outlines and explains his theses clearly in his research, and the added bonus of a global view really helps me tie the various themes together.”
