< The 2015 All-Asia Research Team
Total appearances: 2
Team debut: 2014Morgan Stanley debuted on this lineup as a runner-up last year and now leaps to second place, under the direction of 36-year-old newcomers Lin He and Po-ting (Tim) Hsiao. The pair and their eight-analyst squad deliver “strong fundamentals research,” in the opinion of one portfolio manager. They are bullish on Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels (Group) Co., a Chinese owner-operator of some 20 four- and five-star luxury hotels, as well as a string of three-star locations. A robust turnaround in the Shanghai market — where top-rated properties are now outperforming their counterparts in the overall domestic market — has been a boon to Jin Jiang, the researchers advise. They project that the hotelier will be a major beneficiary of increased business travel arising from Shanghai’s free trade zone and stronger tourist traffic from the Shanghai Disney Resort that is slated to open next year. Moreover, the analysts observe, management has disposed of two low-profit locations at very high price-to-earnings multiples, and the provincial government’s additional reforms of state-owned enterprises will further bolster performance. They are less sanguine about the prospects for Hong Kong’s Shangri-La Asia, a Jin Jiang competitor that they recommend underweighting based on their negative outlook for high-end hotels in less tony markets, where supply is both already challenging and increasing. Shangri-La intends to open six new hotels in second-tier cities by year-end 2015, they note. Both He and Hsiao became sell-side analysts when they joined Morgan Stanley in 2007. He moved from the investment-banking division of China International Capital Corp. and specializes in lodging companies and conglomerates in China and Hong Kong; she holds an MBA from the China Europe International Business School and a BS in economics from China’s Fudan University. Hsiao focuses on Taiwanese materials and industrials stocks and earlier covered greater China hardware technology names. He previously worked as an account manager at U.S. multinational consumer goods company Procter & Gamble Co. and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at National Taiwan University.