< The 2015 All-Europe Research Team
Christyan Malek & team
Nomura International
First-Place Appearances: 8
Total Appearances: 14
Team Debut: 1994
In the No. 1 position on this lineup for the first time since 2010 is Nomura International, whose coverage is directed by London-based Christyan Malek, 34. The former BP intern holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in the U.K., and reported on European oil services names for Deutsche Bank before joining Nomura in October 2011. He led his new firm to a runner-up position two years later and to second place in 2014. Malek and his crew report on 18 European oil services names, and investors appreciate the caution they exercised in steering them away from some poor performers in the group. For example, in September 2013 the researchers downgraded Subsea 7 from buy to reduce. The U.K.-headquartered company, which provides equipment to the offshore oil industry, was seeing earnings weaken as its customers reduced their capital expenditures, they advised. By the end of last month, the Norway-listed shares had plunged 47.5 percent, to 65.90 Norwegian kroner. During the same period, the sector plummeted 53.3 percent, but Europe’s broad market gained 13.9 percent. The analysts have also been bearish on oil price movements. In April, with crude oil averaging about $105 per barrel, Malek returned from a Middle East trip convinced that it would fall below $80. Although the price continued to rise over the next two months, he stood firm, and in October he was proved right. Crude oil has not since recovered, averaging less than $61 per barrel in December. “It was a bold call, and he was right,” marvels one fund manager. Then in May 2014 the team lowered U.K.-based Petrofac from buy to reduce, at 1,370.08p, citing disappointing execution at its North Sea oil field and other locations. In November the energy services provider’s management issued a warning that 2015 profits could decline by 25 percent, and the shares plunged. At the end of last month, they had lost nearly half their value since the Nomura downgrade, closing at 706p.