< The 2014 All-Europe Fixed-Income Research Team
The J.P. Morgan trio led by Alketa (Katie) Ruci leaps from runner-up to second place on this roster and repeats atop the lineup in High-Yield Retailing/Consumer Products. Ruci reports that the researchers, who work out of London, made recommendations last year on 34 high-grade issuers. Among these calls was a June reiteration of their overweight rating on French hypermarket and supermarket operator Casino Guichard-Perrachon, whose five-year credit default swaps were then at 170 basis points. They believed Casino could withstand investors’ concerns about emerging-markets weakness — specifically, an economic slowdown in Brazil, where it holds the top market position in food retailing. Good call. By the end of the year, the CDSs had narrowed to 98.5 basis points. |