< The 2016 All-Asia Research Team
Sameer Chopra, Simon Garing & team
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
First-place appearances: 2
Total appearances: 27
Team debut: 1995
Down one rung to third place is Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s squad under the guidance of Sydney-based Sameer Chopra, 45, and 47-year-old Simon Garing, who works out of Hong Kong. The pair oversees 30 analysts’ reporting on some 140 companies, and Chopra continues to team with Xinnian (Sydney) Zhang in directing the firm’s coverage of regional telecommunications names; their crew repeats at No. 2 on that roster. In this space the researchers have been touting Treasury Wine Estates and Medibank Private, both of which are based in Melbourne. They raised their rating on Treasury Wine from neutral to buy in November 2014 — largely crediting the global winemaker’s expanding overseas exports and attractive valuation — and by late last month, the stock had soared 102.4 percent, to A$9.35. During the same period, its regional peers as a whole had slipped 6.3 percent. In January 2016 the group reiterated its buy position on Medibank, Australia’s leading health insurance provider, advising that favorable claims trends should propel growth and lead to premium increases. Sure enough, by mid-April the shares had leaped 42.3 percent, closing at A$3.13 and besting the regional broad market by 29.8 percentage points. “They’re hitting on all cylinders,” cheers one institutional investor.