< The 2015 Latin America Research Team
Total appearances: 10
Team debut: 2005In its tenth consecutive appearance on this roster, Bank of America Merrill Lynch rises from runner-up to third place. São Paulo–based Sara Delfim, 41, and 48-year-old Ronald Epstein, who works out of New York, coordinate the coverage. Tracking 18 Latin American transportation stocks, the four researchers “react quickly to company events and always take a strong stand,” avers one asset manager. One of the names they have added to their sector portfolio over the past year is Smiles. In mid-July 2014 they advised that the Brazil-based airline loyalty programs provider was well positioned to benefit from deal-hungry consumers’ shopping and assigned the stock a buy rating. A year later it had soared 51.1 percent, to 56.42 reais, even as its peers’ shares tumbled 15.8 percent. The team is less sanguine, however, about the prospects for Colombian airline operator Avianca Holdings, whose American depositary receipts the researchers downgraded from buy to underperform in May. Headwinds included local currency depreciation and sluggish demand, among other factors. By mid-July the ADRs had fallen 19.4 percent, to $9.91, trailing the regional sector by 13.2 percentage points. This year Delfim co-captains another squad that rises from runner-up to third place — on the Capital Goods roster, with Murilo Freiberger.
