< The 2015 All-Asia Research Team
Praveen Choudhary & team
Morgan Stanley
First-place appearances: 0
Total appearances: 6
Team debut: 2010
Leaping to second place after two years at runner-up is Morgan Stanley’s team under the stewardship of Praveen Choudhary. From their offices in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Singapore and South Korea, the eight researchers follow approximately 40 gaming and lodging concerns in the region, though that number is likely to expand in the coming year given the group’s plans to expand into Chinese equities, including A shares. Choudhary and his colleagues are advising clients to be wary of companies that are especially reliant on the gambling center of Macau, a city that he says is facing declining interest from VIP travelers. “We would remain on the sidelines in Macau but wait for signs of bottoming during the second half of this year for longer-term investment,” Choudhary notes. “In the meantime, [we recommend that investors] look to other Asian countries.” To wit: Australia, Cambodia and the Philippines are reaping benefits from the rerouting of tourist traffic away from Macau, he adds. Examples include Echo Entertainment Group, owner and manager of resorts and casinos in its home country of Australia; Cambodian hotel and entertainment complex operator NagaCorp; and Philippines-based Bloomberry Resorts Corp., which runs hotels and integrated tourism resorts. Choudhary also co-leads, with Simon Lee, a crew that repeats at No. 1 on the Hong Kong roster; with Chun Hung (John) Lam, he shepherds a runner-up group on the Property lineup.