Chi Ming (Edwin) Chan & team
UBS
First-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 7

Team debut: 1997

On the strength of “research recommendations that are always timely, relevant and actionable,” as one advocate puts it, Chi Ming (Edwin) Chan’s UBS squad recaptures the No. 3 slot, after a year at runner-up. This five-person, Hong Kong–based group forecasts that credit spreads for Asian dollar bonds will compress through the end of the year. Headwinds include “a volatile market for U.S. Treasuries and emerging-markets outflow concerns on Federal Reserve tapering,” Chan explains. One strong play in this environment, he says, would be “barbell positions” in Indian banks’ short-dated senior debts and subdebts. Specifically, the analysts recommend that investors favor such issuers as Bank of India, a commercial bank; diversified giant ICICI Bank; and State Bank of India, a multinational financial services provider. Although rating agencies last year put the nation’s sovereign credit rating on watch last year, citing poor economic fundamentals, high fiscal and current-account deficits and government inaction, the strategists advised in an exhaustive, 134-page December report that “even if India does get downgraded, these banks will service their coupons, in our view, and the low duration of the bonds should keep price risk minimal.”