< The 2014 All-Europe Fixed-Income Research Team
Robert Buhr directs his Société Générale troupe to a repeat third-place showing. The London-based team is smaller by four members, at three, but these analysts over the past year have expanded coverage to 75 bond issuers from 60. Investors hail their coverage of chemicals names, including Belgium’s Solvay, as outstanding. Buhr and his colleagues noted in February 2013 that management was reducing Solvay’s debt so advised selling its credit default swaps, then at 114 basis points. Sure enough, less than a year later, they had tightened to 67 basis points. One current favorite is France’s Wendel, an investment company whose holdings include electrical components providers and manufacturing services providers. In March 2013 the trio initiated coverage on Wendel with a buy on its 2019 notes, at 321 basis points, on valuation and in anticipation of a credit-rating upgrade. Good call. Standard & Poor’s raised the company from BB to BB+ stable in April, and the bonds predictably narrowed, to 190 basis points nine months later. “Bob is a sane voice in a sometimes frustrating environment,” shares one fund manager. See also Robert Buhr's profile in the 2013 All-Europe Fixed-Income Research Team. |