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Ching Jen (James) Kan
& team
Deutsche Bank
First-Place Appearances: 1

Total Appearances: 4

Team Debut: 2004

Ching Jen (James) Kan, 40, pilots his Deutsche Bank crew up from second place to capture the firm’s first top finish on this roster. Deutsche has 17 analysts covering Asia’s basic materials names, based in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Mumbai, Seoul and Sydney. Clients say this team provides good corporate access and praise its “detailed and proprietary data mining, plus sensible industry and company views,” in the words of one money manager. China’s basic materials shares tumbled 16 percent in 2013, trailing the broader sector by 14.1 percentage points. This underperformance will likely continue, says Kan, although “potentially some cyclical recovery can be expected in the second half of the year.” Indeed, as of late April, those stocks fell 3.5 percent further, against the sector’s 2.3 percent drop. A favorite among the more than 100 names the researchers cover is nickel producer Vale Indonesia, on whose shares they have assigned a target price of 4,130 rupiah, representing a 12.8 percent upside to their trading level in late April. “We believe that ongoing political uncertainty in Indonesia, relating to the formation of a new government and the presidential election [in July], implies that the ban on nickel-ore exports will likely continue for another 12 to 18 months,” explains the 40-year-old team leader, which will boost both demand for nickel and the metal’s price. “I really like their insightful weekly analyses and data updates on China’s commodities,” remarks another backer. Kan received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Taipei’s National Taiwan University and worked as an information technology sales manager at Hewlett-Packard Co. before earning an MBA at the University of California, Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management. For several years he was employed as a business strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co., then moved to CLSA as a senior analyst covering this sector. He jumped to Deutsche in 2009, debuting as the leader of this squad last year.