< The 2016 All-Asia Research Team

Total appearances: 16

Team debut: 1994

UBS improves on the runner-up showing it posted for three straight years, reclaiming the No. 3 position it held in 2012. After Yanming (Kris) Huang left the firm for Guotai Junan Securities Co. later that year, Yankun Hou assumed oversight of the firm’s China equities research efforts. Hong Kong–based Hou, 44, had rejoined UBS the previous October, following five years spent covering China’s autos and auto parts stocks at Lehman Brothers Asia then Nomura. He worked as a research scientist at the Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut before changing careers and first signed on with UBS in 2005. Hou holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Shanghai’s Fudan University, a Ph.D. in chemistry from the Tokyo Institute of Technology and an MBA from Cornell University in New York. This year he also co-leads, with Young Chang, a crew that merits a runner-up spot on the Autos & Auto Parts roster. His 36-person team in this sector reports on 380 companies from offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai. In September they upgraded Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., largely thanks to high demand for the Guangdong-headquartered diversified manufacturer’s new sport utility vehicles. “It was a well-timed call,” recalls one money manager, “near the low of the year and despite extremely bearish sentiment on the Street.” Indeed, by late last month the Hong Kong–listed shares had jumped 60.1 percent, to HK$8.95, besting the wide Chinese market by 62.8 percentage points.