The 2015 All-Europe Research Team: Telecommunications Service, No. 1: Hannes Wittig & team

Hannes Wittig & team

J.P. Morgan Cazenove

First-Place Appearances: 4

Total Appearances: 14

Team Debut: 2001

Every year since Hannes Wittig made his first appearance as leader of J.P. Morgan Cazenove’s European telecommunications services team, the squad has bounced between first and second place. This year is no different: He steers his six-person, London-based crew back to the top, recording the firm’s fourth top finish in seven years. Wittig “is able to put himself into shoes of management teams and raises the key strategic issues for the companies he covers,” observes one admirer. “This obviously also enables him to identify and to call sector-moving industry trends.” The analysts track 44 regional telecommunications services providers and hold a constructive view on the sector, whose shares posted a 15 percent gain over the 12 months through January and beat the regionwide market by 7 percentage points. “We could see some correction early in 2015, following a strong fourth-quarter performance, as markets worry whether the 2015 outlook will match expectations,” Wittig forecasts. “But over the year we would expect the sector to continue rerating, as we expect [earnings] performance to continue improving, based on recent investments in high-speed broadband networks, more consolidated markets and an increased operator focus on market value over market-share gain.” One name the researchers continue to favor is British behemoth Vodafone Group, “which offers broad exposure into improving mobile markets,” he advises. Also recommended for 2015 are Numericable Group, a French cable and fiber-optics services provider; and Germany’s United Internet, which provides Internet access services. “Numericable offers a strong convergent play in a market with consolidation upside,” Wittig explains, and United Internet’s appeal is based on “its strong execution and balanced growth portfolio.”