< The 2015 All-Asia Research Team
Total appearances: 11
Team debut: 2003Bob Leung guides his UBS squad to a second consecutive third-place finish. Working out of Hong Kong, he and one teammate report on seven regional companies. In general, the researchers prefer names in the life insurance subsector over property/casualty providers, predicting that competition is set to intensify for the latter group. His top pick is Ping An Insurance Group Co. of China, the nation’s second-largest life insurer, by premiums. “We believe Ping An’s integrated financial services model has helped define its success today and will likely help to accelerate its business growth significantly over the next couple of years,” explains Leung, 37. The analysts’ sum-of-the-parts-based target price for the stock is HK$127.50, which implies a 14 percent upside to its value at the end of last month.