< The 2016 All-Asia Research Team
Anantha Narayan, Manish Nigam & team
Credit Suisse
First-place appearances: 5
Total appearances: 17
Team debut: 1999
In third place is the Credit Suisse troupe led by Mumbai-based Anantha Narayan and Manish Nigam, who works out of Hong Kong. Their five-member team captured a runner-up spot in 2015. This year 45-year-old Nigam also guides his Hardware crew to No. 2 and, with Randy Abrams, oversees the top-ranked group on the Semiconductors lineup. These information technology researchers are “fairly positive” on their sector, given that “the demand environment remains stable, in our view, with customer spending on digital technologies increasing — and 2015 growth rates should sustain in 2016 as well,” reports Narayan, 46. Of course, he cautions, risks remain, including the potential for sudden changes to the macroeconomic environment — especially involving the global financial services industry, which provides more than one third of regional providers’ revenue — and adverse developments in immigration policy in the U.S. and elsewhere. Credit Suisse favors companies, such as India’s HCL Technologies, “where there is scope for some margin expansion and price-earnings multiple rerating that can generate additional returns,” he says. Over a medium-term horizon, India-based Tech Mahindra is preferred. The analysts “have solid teamwork and great, timely responses to all the questions I have,” one advocate remarks.