The 2014 All-India Research Team: Health Care & Pharmaceuticals, No. 3: Saion Mukherjee

November 10, 2014

< The 2014 All-India Research TeamSaion MukherjeeNomuraFirst-Place Appearances: 1

Total Appearances: 4

Analyst Debut: 2011Nomura’s Saion Mukherjee, whom one money manager describes as “very quick in understanding the trends and catching them in the nascent stage,” repeats at No. 3 on this list. Although India’s health care and pharmaceuticals shares rose 36.3 percent year to date through late October, beating the broad domestic market by 14.8 percentage points, Mukherjee is cautious on the group, citing regulatory and pricing risks. “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is getting stricter in terms of production processes and quality issues. There are price controls which come up in markets like India,” he explains. “And there are always uncertainties around the timing for product approvals because most of the regulators are quite slow in giving approvals.” As a result, he is very selective in making specific stock recommendations. One name that earns his favor is Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, a Mumbai-based developer whose focus is on creating generic drugs for treatment of inflammation, metabolic disorders and pain. “We like this company because we think there can be a meaningful inflection in margins and therefore earnings over the next couple of years,” Mukherjee says. Glenmark is also one of the few players investing in innovation research to discover new pharmaceuticals, reaching beyond generic medicines, and in “the next couple of years, we may see some value unlocking on that front,” he adds.

RUNNER(S)-UP
Hemant Bakhru
CLSA

Manoj Garg
Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Prashant Nair
Citi