For a sixth straight year, Sberbank CIB’s Oleg Maximov commands this lineup, winning investor loyalty with his client service and ability “to make complicated processes look easy,” as one fund manager says. The 43-year-old researcher reports on 13 Russian oil and gas companies and counts Moscow-based exploration-and-production giant Gazprom among his favorites. He upgraded the stock from hold to buy in July, citing rising exports and a likely increase in dividends. By mid-October the global depositary receipts had leaped 28.2 percent, to $9.82, but a general sell-off pulled them back to $8.15 at the end of May, for a life of call gain of 6.4 percent, which nonetheless bested the sector’s rise by 2.6 percentage points. Although he is maintaining that buy rating, Maximov is “cautious on the sector” overall, he notes, making an exception only for “growth stories that were excessively punished by the market this year.” Specifically, he recommends that investors buy NovaTek, Russia’s largest independent natural-gas producer, which is headquartered in Tarko-Sale; and Eurasia Drilling Co., a Cyprus-based drilling and well-services contractor. At the end of May, the GDRs were trading at $116 and $29.90, respectively, and Maximov forecasts increases to $188 and $45. “Oleg’s is an independent voice that cuts through the noise,” sums up another backer. |
The 2014 All-Russia Research Team: Oil & Gas, No. 1: Oleg Maximov
