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Mikhail Shlemov
VTB Capital
"He is an analyst’s analyst."
In first place for a second straight year is Mikhail Shlemov of VTB Capital. Monitoring just four Russian stocks, the 30-year-old is expanding his universe into emerging Europe and reports that over the past year his “number of client interactions rose, and travel was intensive as well.” In May 2012, Shlemov named Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan a top pick, at $7 per global depositary receipt, on real gross domestic product and consumer spending growth in the former Soviet republic. The commercial and retail lender’s shares climbed to $9 in January before falling back to $7.30 in late May, but the researcher remains bullish. Also recommended: Bank St. Petersburg and Moscow’s Vozrozhdenie Bank, midcap firms that “offer great value and are trading well below book value,” he explains. Shlemov “is one to watch,” asserts one U.K.-based fund manager. — Ben Mattlin