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Christophe
Boulanger,
Thomas Southon
& team
Barclays
“Their knowledge is comprehensive; their coverage, quite broad.”
Previously unranked Barclays shoots straight to the top. The London-based trio is directed by Christophe Boulanger, 41, and Thomas Southon, 35. The team’s current top picks include Ciech’s 9.5 percent 2019 senior secured notes. The analysts launched coverage in January with an overweight recommendation, at €109.25, judging the Polish chemicals producer’s recent plan to divest noncore operations a wise move toward improving stability and reducing leverage. “You could do a lot worse than to follow their advice,” declares one fund manager in London. Boulanger, who also co-leads (with Darren Hook) the No. 1 team in Investment-Grade Manufacturing/General Industrials, earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting at Ecole Supérieure de Gestion Management School in Paris; he joined the firm in 2011 from Crédit Agricole Corporate Investment Bank. Southon, who with Eriko Miyazaki-Ross is a runner-up in High-Yield Basic Materials, moved to Barclays in 2010 from Royal Bank of Scotland; he holds a bachelor’s degree in financial economics from England’s University of Liverpool. — Carolyn Koo