The 2013 All-China Research Team: Health Care, First: Bin Li

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Bin Li
Morgan Stanley

First-place appearances: 4

Total appearances: 4

Analyst debut: 2010

Morgan Stanley’s Bin Li captures the crown for a fourth year running, in part because “he writes extensively and knows the companies and businesses very well,” as one portfolio manager puts it. Another client applauds the analyst for “his very timely comments right after annual and semiannual results.” Li is optimistic about his sector’s long-term growth prospects, he says, thanks to “increasing demand for medical products and services, driven partly by the improving R&D capability of Chinese companies, an aging population and better medical insurance.” Last December he published a 2013 outlook piece that predicted a volatile year for the space “because of positive and negative forces weighing on sector fundamentals.” Indeed, that’s what has panned out. China’s health care shares started the year on the rise and despite turbulence reached their peak in late March, posting a 9.2 percent gain since year-end 2012. Then the sector settled into a downward trend through choppy range-bound trading and fell to the year’s low in late June, 13.4 percent off its high. Now the rally was on, sending the stocks up 11.4 percent through late August, but by the middle of September they had given back 10.1 percent. As of the end of October, the group had clawed back 9 percent, resulting in a year-to-date gain of 3.2 percent. — Katie Gilbert

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