< The 2014 All-China Research TeamDi (Dick) WeiCredit SuisseFirst-place appearances: 0
Total appearances: 1
Analyst debut: 2014Di (Dick) Wei of Credit Suisse debuts in third place. As of late last month, shares of China’s Internet companies were up 47.2 percent over the trailing 12 months, beating the broader domestic market by 49.4 percentage points, and Wei is bullish. “We have gone through the fastest phase of mobile phone penetration growth,” he says. “New business models and services — such as local services, Internet financing and mobile payment — shall gain more traction.” Consequently, the analyst, who works out of Hong Kong, recommends that investors favor players with exposure to those niches. Examples include Baidu, the Beijing-based operator of China’s largest web search engine, which he projects will experience margin expansion in 2015; Shenzhen’s Tencent Holdings, because the owner of the WeChat mobile messaging platform should have improving growth in mobile games in the fourth quarter and a strong driver in performance-based advertisements in 2015; and Guangzhou-based YY, an online gaming and chat room provider that he believes has a good execution team and will benefit from strong expansion of entertainment spending.