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Kirill Kazanli & team
Citi
"They know their companies well and respond quickly to requests."
Citi repeats atop the roster. This year the two-member team is managed by Moscow-based newcomer Kirill Kazanli, who also leads a runner-up crew in Transportation. Among Russian companies, the analysts’ top pick this year is Mostotrest, a builder of bridges, railways and roads. “It’s got a well-diversified business model, strong balance sheet and good management team,” Kazanli says, and poised to take advantage of an anticipated pickup in infrastructure spending later this year. The researchers are also upbeat about Polish stocks; earlier this month the nation’s General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways announced that some €10 billion ($13 billion) in funding from the European Union would be spent on road construction over the next few years. “We prefer companies with strong balance sheets, as banks remain reluctant to grant loans to companies with liquidity problems,” the team leader explains. Budimex, Poland’s largest construction holding company, is among the names the researchers are recommending. “Their reporting tends to be good in terms of industry analysis, and their earnings estimates tend to be close to actual results,” observes one buy-side supporter. Kazanli earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at New York University’s Stern School of Business; he covered transportation stocks for J.P. Morgan, then infrastructure stocks for Troika Dialog before joining Citi in 2011. — Leslie Kramer