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Lars Kjellberg
& team
Credit Suisse
"Lars has been extremely helpful in analyzing a particularly complicated and challenging sector."
Vaulting from third place to first is the Credit Suisse crew captained by Lars Kjellberg, who works out of Stockholm and is fluent in both English and Swedish. "He has the benefit of being truly bilingual," attests one London fund manager. The team reports on 12 stocks and plans to add to that total this year. The analysts relaunched coverage on Ireland's Smurfit Kappa Group with an outperform rating in March, at €7.36, on cost-saving debt refinancing and rising containerboard prices, among other considerations. By the end of December, the stock had surged 22.3 percent, to €9 — far outpacing its sector's 5 percent advance. It remains a favorite for the year ahead. Kjellberg, 50, joined Credit Suisse in 1997 from Enskilda Securities, where he followed the same sector. He earned a bachelor's degree in public administration at Sweden's Uppsala University. — Ben Mattlin