Economics & Strategy – Corporate Debt: Third

Down one rung to third place, after two years at No. 2, is the five-member BTG Pactual squad piloted by Alexandre Müller. The São Paulo–based leader also directs teams that claim second place in Local-Markets Strategy and a runner-up position in Sovereign Debt. Clients appreciate the strategists’ “ability to assess economic conditions and understand what attracts foreign investors to these markets,” as one money manager puts it. The U.S. Federal Reserve’s plan to scale back its quantitative easing measures means that Treasury rates are likely to rise, forcing a global asset reallocation, Müller says. He and his associates are recommending short-duration bonds, “which have less interest rate risk,” as well as high-yield names in such countries as Chile and Peru, where real gross domestic product growth is robust, inflation is under control and companies with outstanding bonds are more reliant on domestic than global markets. Examples include such Peruvian concerns as beverage distributor Ajegroup and fish-meal producer Copeinca. — Carolyn Koo