The 2013 All-China Research Team: Energy, Second: Graham Cunningham

Graham Cunningham, who rises one notch to secure second place, earns praise for being an “independent thinker,” as one fund manager puts it. For example, the Citi analyst defied market consensus with his January downgrade of Kunlun Energy Co. from buy to sell. The Hong Kong–based independent crude oil and natural-gas exploration and production company would suffer lackluster earnings from its liquefied-natural-gas segment as a result of weakness in the domestic heavy-truck market, he reasoned. Then in early August, after the shares had slumped 28.6 percent, to HK$11.81, and lagged the sector by 5.9 percentage points, he upgraded them to buy, on valuation. Three weeks later he jumped back to sell, at HK$12.58 — Kunlun Energy’s chairman, Li Hualin, had resigned suddenly under an unspecified cloud of suspicion and investigation by China’s State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. At the end of October, the shares were changing hands at HK$12.68 and trailing the sector by 2.4 percentage points. Cunningham continues to advise clients to offload the stock. “He isn’t afraid to change views when new information comes to light,” attests another fan. — Ben Mattlin