Maciej Szczesny & team
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
First-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 4

Team debut: 2011

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s team claims the No. 2 position for a second year running, led by Maciej Szczesny. Clients appreciate the group’s “fundamental approach to company analysis and very good understanding of the sector,” as one fund manager says. In January 2013 the analysts turned positive on Qatar National Bank, upgrading the shares from neutral to buy and dubbing QNB the best bank in its class and well positioned to benefit from the expansion of “Qatar Inc.” In May 2014, just ahead of the formal elevation of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from frontier to emerging-markets status in the MSCI universe, they issued a report comparing the banks in those two nations with their emerging-markets peers and reiterating their position on QNB. (The New York–based analytics firm announced the change last June, and it took effect this month.) Szczesny and his colleagues advised that the basket of UAE and Qatari banks in their coverage universe was then up 11 percent for the year to date, while the sector climbed 4.5 percent. Qatari National’s shares had performed quite well, rising 14.3 percent over that period, to 172 riyals — and soaring 40 percent since their upgrade, against the sector’s 1.3 percent rise. Although valuations had returned to precrisis levels, the researchers noted, they forecast continuing outperformance for that segment of their portfolio, based on robust earnings growth and dividends. Szczesny left BofA Merrill in April, and Yavuz Uzay has assumed leadership of the team.