< The 2016 All-Europe Research Team
Mark Manduca, Angus Tweedie
& team
Bank of America
Merrill Lynch
First-Place Appearances: 8
Total Appearances: 20
Team Debut: 1993
Despite an adjustment at the top of its European transportation team, Bank of America Merrill Lynch logs its fourth consecutive top finish on this roster. For the past three years, Mark Manduca, 32, and Joel Spungin directed coverage, but Spungin shifted in October 2014 to oversee the firm’s business and employment services research (his squad earns second place this year). Now Angus Tweedie shares leadership duties with Manduca. The 31-year-old newcomer has been with BofA Merrill since August 2014, joining from Macquarie Securities, where he reported on telecommunications, media and technology equities. Before that he worked as a midmarket M&A analyst at KPMG. Tweedie holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Scotland’s University of Edinburgh. BofA Merrill’s analysts track 24 names in this space, and “they are the most approachable team, always genuinely keen to help in whatever way possible,” one fund manager insists. “They have made some fantastic money-making calls and produced the best thought pieces in the industry. They are a true asset.” In July the group lowered its rating on Denmark-based container vessels operator AP Møller-Maersk from buy to underperform, citing its exposure to the impacts of declining oil prices and sea-freight rates. Indeed, the stock has lagged its regional peers since, dropping 37.1 percent by mid-January, to 7,765 Danish kroner, while Europe’s transportation names overall declined 15.4 percent. The researchers prefer Royal Mail, which in addition to running the U.K.’s post offices provides freight-forwarding and international logistics services. Believing that fears in the investment community regarding pension costs, regulatory changes and wage negotiations are overblown, they assign the stock a buy rating and price objective of 600p. It closed at 427.90p in mid-January. “They consistently go out of their way to reach out, even though I’m in New York and they’re in London,” attests another client.