< The 2014 All-Europe Fixed-Income Research Team
Notching its first appearance on this lineup is RBC Europe, in the person of Roger Appleyard, which captures the No. 3 spot. Appleyard soon will be leading a four-strong team, he reports, once new hires come on board. In the meantime, he covers 15 issuers from his base in London and is hailed as “knowledgeable, balanced and reliable,” in the words of one champion. “He is very experienced in both fundamental credit analysis and market technicals, relative value.” In October the researcher placed an out-of-consensus overweight rating on Italy’s largest telecommunications services provider, Telecom Italia, based partly on a potential sale of its Brazilian asset, TIM Brasil, and on technical catalysts evolving from the company’s anticipated downgrade to junk status. “I felt it was a bold call at the time,” Appleyard recalls, “and when the bonds widened 20 to 30 basis points within two weeks of the call, I did question it.” He nonetheless stuck to his position, and “subsequent tightening of 80 to 100 basis points across the curve proved it was the right one,” he notes. “When you have a challenging credit story, it is too easy to retain a negative relative-value view — but sometimes you have to look through the noise.” |