THIRD TEAM

Panagiotis Spiliopoulos & team Vontobel

Vontobel, in third place, makes its first appearance in the ranking since 2008. The 17-person, Zurich-based team guided by newcomer Panagiotis Spiliopoulos “gives us the best access to Swiss companies and a lot of help understanding them,” declares one buy-side supporter. Back in November 2009 the analysts upgraded Cie. Financière Richemont from hold to buy, dubbing shares of the Geneva-based luxury-goods maker a bargain at Sf31.73. One year later — with the stock up 68.8 percent, to Sf53.55, and ahead of Switzerland’s broad market by a jaw-dropping 65.9 percentage points — they downgraded it to hold, on valuation. The downgrade may have been premature, however; the shares had inched up 2.7 percent by the end of the year, to Sf55, as the broad market slipped 1 percent.