< The 2016 All-Asia Research Team
Xiang Rong (Jacqueline) Li, Amish Shah & team
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
First-place appearances: 10
Total appearances: 17
Team debut: 2001
Xiang Rong (Jacqueline) Li and newcomer Amish Shah shepherd Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Asia ex-Japan industrials research team to third place on this revised list. Transportation is a separate sector now, and the firm garners a runner-up position on that lineup, fielding a squad led by Paul Dewberry, Li’s co-captain last year of the No. 2 crew on the wider Industrials list. Shah also co-heads, with Angello Chan, a crew that lands at runner-up on the Power roster. Stationed in Mumbai, he has been with BofA Merrill since August 2014, joining from Credit Suisse. There he covered Indian power companies and earned first place in that space on Institutional Investor’s All-India Research Team for three years through 2013. Shah previously was an associate at DSP Merrill Lynch and ICICI Securities and holds a bachelor of commerce degree and an MMS degree in finance from the University of Mumbai. “We expect domestic order inflow growth to continue to be sluggish, at 7 to 16 percent, over the next three years,” he advises. “Thus we expect public sector funded infrastructure projects to be the sole driver of [capital expenditure] cycle recovery over the next few years, particularly led by roads, metro-mono rail, mining and the renewables sectors in the near term, followed by a pickup in order flow from railways and defense sectors in the medium term.” As a result, the analysts, who report on a dozen companies, have a positive outlook on the regional sector. Regarding China, in particular, Shanghai-based Li notes that “the major issue impacting most industrials names is whether China construction-project new starts will be able to recover this year and maintain positive growth in coming years.” BofA Merrill’s researchers impress investors with their on-the-ground presence and real-time outreach, with one money manager hailing their “excellent stock calls over the past three years.” Another fan singles out Li as “especially strong in data modeling and pursuing the details.”