< The 2015 All-Europe Research Team
Panagiotis Spiliopoulos & team
Vontobel
First-place appearances: 3
Total appearances: 21
Team debut: 1992
Vontobel’s squad under the guidance of Panagiotis Spiliopoulos maintains the No. 2 position it has held since 2013. Headquartered in Zurich and following 128 Swiss companies, the 12-person team earns high marks from investors for being “a real up-and-comer and a bit more daring” than competitors, as one admirer says. “They’ve been more critical of some of the blue chips. One company, for example, where the corporate governance has been bad has been trading at high multiples, and it could lead to derating. I’m avoiding their stock, but if I were a hedge fund, I’d short them. That’s information no one else will give you right now.” One name the Vontobel analysts have been steering clients toward, on the other hand, is Austrian semiconductors maker AMS, whose shares are listed in Switzerland. After posting lackluster results in 2013, they advise, AMS began to build strong momentum last year as demand for semiconductors factored in the booming smartphone and tablet markets. Moreover, its customer base remains impressive, led by American consumer electronics giant Apple and including, among others, China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp., and LG Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea. Finally, even as AMS has increased its penetration in consumer devices, Spiliopoulos, 44, and his colleagues anticipate robust expansion of its near-field-communication and gesture sensors among AMS’s clients in the automotive, industrial and medical sectors. Rated buy, the stock ended January at Sf36.20, and they project a rise to Sf40.