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Athmane Benzerroug
& team
Deutsche Bank
"Athmane Benzerroug and team have a clear understanding of the macro and company-specific factors driving share prices."
It’s three straight years on top for Deutsche Bank. This year the quartet is conducted solely by Athmane Benzerroug, who also co-leads (with Tomasz Krukowski) a runner-up team in Construction & Engineering. Covering 40 stocks from offices in Poland, Russia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, the analysts are unabashedly bullish. Top picks include UAE-based Emaar Properties, owing to its extensive commercial and residential holdings in Dubai, and Saudi Arabia’s Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Co., thanks to an improving risk profile and management’s more-aggressive growth strategy. “It is one of the cheapest names in Middle East–North Africa real estate,” declares Benzerroug. The researchers also favor Turkey’s Sinpas Gayrimenkul Yatirim Ortakligi, primarily on the residential developer’s improving margins and attractive valuation. They make “really good stock recommendations,” affirms one buy-side backer. — Leslie Kramer