Derek Weaving & team Renaissance
second team Dmitry Skryabin & team VTB
third team Alexander Kotikov & team Troika
Russia’s market rout in late 2008 and early 2009 sent that country’s utilities stocks plummeting to bargain prices by last February, just when electricity supply companies began their multiyear transition to a regulated asset base model that guarantees a minimum rate of return on invested capital. This year’s top three teams all win praise for alerting investors to eye-popping opportunities from reform in the Russian utilities sector.
A “broad, thematic approach grounded in fundamental analysis,” in the words of one investor, helps keep RenCap’s London-based duo at No. 1 for a third consecutive year. Led by Derek Weaving, 58, the team turned bullish on Russian utilities at the start of 2009, and for the 12 months through January the sector catapulted 136.8 percent, trouncing MSCI’s emerging EMEA utilities index by 86.4 points.
Shooting straight in to second place is the previously unranked VTB trio captained by newcomer Dmitry Skryabin. The Moscow-based researchers, praised by one client for their “thorough knowledge of the industry,” expanded their universe over the past year from eight to 22 companies. They initiated coverage of Russia-based Interregional Distribution Grid Co. Holding in August with a buy recommendation, at $0.054. The stock surged 146.3 percent, to $0.133, through January.
The Troika duo led by Alexander Kotikov debuts in third place. In February 2009 the Moscow-based analysts urged investors to buy shares of Federal Grid Co. of Unified Energy System, a holding company for some of Russia’s largest electricity suppliers, as likely to see outsize gains from the transition to RAB. The stock had sizzled up 288.8 percent by the end of January.
Click here to view the complete rankings for The Emerging EMEA Research Team
