< The 2014 All-Europe Fixed-Income Research Team

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Christophe Boulanger, Thomas Southon & team
Barclays
First-Place Appearances: 2

Total Appearances: 2

Team Debut: 2013

Repeating at the top of this lineup is the London-based Barclays team of three analysts under the stewardship of Christophe Boulanger and Thomas Southon. The leaders, 42 and 36 years old, respectively, are known for their “forward-looking views that support our performance,” as one portfolio manager puts it. In January 2013 the analysts issued prescient overweight recommendations on the five-year credit default swaps of three auto industry companies: carmakers Fiat of Italy and Jaguar Land Rover Automotive of the U.K., and German parts manufacturer Schaeffler Technologies. They forecast that Fiat would benefit from gaining complete ownership of U.S. manufacturer Chrysler Group, which happened in January 2014. Jaguar was poised to launch several new models, they noted, and see a boost to its credit rating; that occurred in July. Finally, they anticipated that Schaeffler would pare its stake in German rival Continental to reduce its indebtedness. The company did just that in September. By the end of the year, the CDS spreads had narrowed to 290 basis points (from 610 basis points) for Fiat, 198 basis points (from 370 basis points) for Jaguar and 172 basis points (from 420 basis points) for Schaeffler. These researchers “are independent thinkers,” champions another supporter.