Elena Sakhnova & team
VTB Capital
First-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 3

Team debut: 2011

In the No. 3 position is VTB Capital, whose Moscow-based pair of analysts advances from runner-up. Leader Elena Sakhnova also directs the second-place troupe in Transportation. Tracking four regional chemicals companies, the strategists are hailed as “very professional and helpful, and in touch with their clients regarding all their questions,” as one investor reports. This duo maintains a cautious stance on the sector — which tumbled 27.7 percent over the 12 months through May, trailing the broader regional market by 36.4 percentage points — and is likewise circumspect on the prospects for PhosAgro, a Russian producer of fertilizers and phosphates. Although “the rally in phosphate prices attracted the spotlight in the beginning of the year,” Sakhnova says, “as the dust settles after temporary supply disruptions, the realization of lower levels, dictated by the Indian market, is bringing back caution into PhosAgro, whose noninclusion into MSCI, as we predicted, disappointed the market.” The New York–based analytics provider announced results of its semiannual index rebalancing in mid-May 2013, and PhosAgro’s global depositary receipts have since slumped 19.5 percent, closing at $11.67 at the end of May. VTB Capital is also recommending that clients sell Uralkali, assigning the Russian potash producer’s GDRs a target price of $20, 10.4 percent below their late May value. “Potash prices are among the firmest among fertilizers,” Sakhnova acknowledges, but “poor fundamentals and an unlikely return in the midterm to the oligopoly, which disintegrated in July 2013, could negatively affect the stock price.”