< The 2016 All-Europe Research Team
Pinar Ergun & team
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
First-place appearances: 1
Total appearances: 14
Team debut: 1993
After four straight appearances as a runner-up, Bank of America Merrill Lynch rises to third place, posting its strongest showing since 2001. Pinar Ergun debuted last year as co-head of the firm’s coverage with Nik Oliver, who jumped to UBS in June. Ergun joined the firm in May 2013 from Sanford C. Bernstein, where she tracked European household and personal care products equities. Before launching her sell-side career, the analyst worked as a consultant in the economic consulting and valuation practice at LECG Corp., which was later acquired by FTI Consulting. She earned a degree in economics from Istanbul’s Koç Üniversitesi and a master’s in finance and economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her group of three researchers follows seven regional HPC stocks from its base in London, garnering praise from one money manager for providing “some very good differentiated pieces with quite a lot of detail on Unilever’s tea business and the Reckitt Benckiser [Group] hygiene segment, which have added considerable value — and has just not been done by other brokerages.” Ergun, 31, acknowledges that companies in her sector face macro challenges, in the form of stabilized lackluster growth in emerging markets and limited recovery in developed markets; but she and her colleagues identify opportunities in management teams’ doubled-down focus on cost savings and larger investments in e-commerce, as well as in potential merger and acquisition activity. They especially like Unilever’s chances. In late January 2015, with the British-Dutch consumer giant’s American depositary receipts at $35.57, the analysts boosted their rating from neutral to buy, predicting top-line recovery, stronger margin expansion and increasing focus on M&A and portfolio optimization. As of the middle of last month, the stock had inched up 1 percent, to 2,777.08, compared with the 7.8 percent gain posted by its regional peers and 10.1 percent loss for Europe’s broad market.