After a three-year absence, Credit Suisse returns to the roster in third place. Newcomer Ivano Westin guides the São Paulo–based trio. “He is so knowledgeable, he’s like a professor of metals,” asserts one grateful investor in Brazil. The team, which covers 16 stocks, downgraded Vale from outperform to neutral in February 2012, at 40.73 reais, on declining prices and lack of volume growth at the Brazil-based seller of aluminum, copper, gold, iron ore and other metals. By mid-July 2013 the shares had fallen 26.7 percent, to 29.84 reais; during the same period the sector declined 36 percent. The analysts remain bearish. “We expect steel and iron-ore prices to be under pressure” for some time, says Westin. — Ben Mattlin |
Industries – Metals & Mining: Third