Andrew Keeley
Sberbank CIB
After two years in the runner-up spot, Andrew Keeley reclaims second place — the position he held for three years straight, from 2008 through 2010. The Sberbank CIB researcher, who works out of London, tracks five Russian banks with “unparalleled precision and clear thinking,” as one money manager puts it. Keeley downgraded the global depositary receipts of VTB Bank from buy to hold in February 2012, at $4.79, because of what he termed “excessive revenue volatility” and poor earnings transparency. The Moscow-based full-service lender’s GDRs plunged to $2.90 in late May, for a loss of 39.5 percent that trailed the RTS Financials Index by 14.3 percentage points. “Andrew’s cautiousness helped our performance,” applauds one investor. — Ben Mattlin