Industries – Information Technology & Media: Third

Rising one rung to third place is the Renaissance Capital trio helmed by David Ferguson, who is headquartered in Moscow, and Johannesburg-based Johan Snyman. Mail.ru Group, a Russia-based provider of e-mail services, is the crew’s top pick. “Over the next six months, we expect shares in Mail to outperform owing to a further special dividend payment post the sale of the company’s remaining $400 million stake in Facebook, upgrades to its earnings guidance at its September interim results and the introduction of a common dividend policy,” says Ferguson. The analysts are also upbeat on Naspers, a diversified media outfit headquartered in South Africa, and Netherlands-based Yandex, which operates Russia’s most popular search engine. These companies should “continue to post strong growth given their exposure to secular trends, including growing Internet and smartphone penetration and higher levels of e-commerce in emerging markets,” he adds. — Pam Baker