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Julia Gordeyeva
Sberbank CIB
"She is one of the only analysts in Russia fully dedicated to the real estate sector."
Climbing one rung to capture the crown for the third time in four years is Julia Gordeyeva of Sberbank CIB. The 37-year-old tracks seven companies, with “great expertise and the best management contacts of anyone,” insists one Stockholm-based money manager. In October, Gordeyeva launched coverage with buy ratings on the global depositary receipts of two foreign-headquartered companies that manage properties in Moscow: AFI Development of Cyprus and the U.K.’s RGI International. She recommended AFI on the strength of its portfolio of profitable malls and believed RGI would benefit from its transition from underperforming commercial property to urban housing. The GDRs jumped 43.4 percent and 34.8 percent, respectively, through May; during the same period the sector was down 25.3 percent. For the year ahead the researcher favors PIK Group, owing to the Moscow-based homebuilder’s “improving profitability and declining leverage,” she says. — Ben Mattlin