Fidelity International
Banks
Francesco Sedati of Fidelity International, who makes his first appearance on Europe’s Best of the Buy Side, is “one of the most knowledgeable investors and buy-side analysts on the banking sector — he is capable of combining an in-depth analysis of fundamentals with a strategic view on the market and the trends that are about to emerge,” observes one sell-side researcher.
Sedati, a native of Italy, developed an interest in equity research while a student at Rome’s Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli. In 1997, during a summer internship in the capital markets division of Lehman Brothers, “I discovered that, along with the research process, I was very keen on putting my investment ideas to work with real money.”
After graduation, Sedati accepted an opportunity to join Fayez Sarofim & Co., a money management firm headquartered in Houston. “I couldn’t say no,” says Sedati, 33. He was hired as a junior analyst to follow a number of industries, including government-sponsored enterprises, trust banks and telecommunications.
He returned to university, earning an MBA at the London Business School in 2004, and he joined Fidelity International later that year as an analyst — first on semiconductors, then on banks. He currently covers 15 Italian and Spanish financial institutions.
“I tend to be bottom-up-focused, but my analysis has become increasingly top-down-driven, since the beginning of the subprime crisis,” he says.
Sedati says he analyzed each of his banks’ exposure to toxic securitized assets and steered portfolio managers away from the most troubled institutions, including the U.K.’s Northern Rock, which was nationalized by the British government in February 2008 after news of the firm’s massive subprime-related losses sparked a run on the bank. He advised managers to consider the relatively safer retail banks in Southern Europe, although he declines to identify which ones.
More recently Sedati has focused on troubled banks in Central and Eastern Europe and the ways in which local governments are responding to the financial crisis there.
“I appreciate Francesco’s thorough analysis and his ability to look across sectors and geographies,” says one sell-side supporter. “He remains focused on facts rather than being influenced by cliches, stereotypes and reputations.”
That approach should help Sedati as he moves into a new position covering the property sector. “But I’ll still keep an eye on the banks,” he says.
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