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Bryan Song,
Yi (Winnie) Wu
& team
Bank of America
Merrill Lynch
"They are not afraid to be contrarian, and support their convictions with differentiated research."
Bank of America Merrill Lynch repeats atop the roster. This year the 15-strong squad is directed by Bryan Song, who works out of Seoul (and also leads the team deemed the best at coverage of South Korea), and Beijing-based Yi (Winnie) Wu. “We continue to advise investors to adopt a nimble trading strategy and to focus on quality banks with proven track records and clear competitive strength,” says Wu, 35. Current favorites among the 70 stocks the analysts cover include China Construction Bank Corp. and South Korea’s KB Financial Group. Thanks to solid fundamentals, these companies should perform well even if the region’s economic growth disappoints, the researchers believe. “Winnie Wu is one of the most experienced analysts covering the sector,” declares one fan. “She went through several cycles and understands the dynamics of stock performance under different cyclical environments.” Song, 43, received a bachelor’s degree at Seoul’s Yonsei University and an MBA at New York’s Columbia University; he joined Merrill Lynch in 2000 from the Bank of Korea. — Leslie Kramer