VTB Capital’s Ivan Kim claims the top spot on this roster, rising from the No. 2 position, where he debuted last year. “He has the best knowledge and is not shy when it comes to trading ideas,” one portfolio manager insists. Clients also praise the 28-year-old researcher for maintaining his long-standing buy rating on Moscow-based Sistema. Kim reiterated his position throughout 2013, crediting management’s sales of underperforming assets and the telecommunications carrier’s rising dividend yield. Over the 12 months through May, the global depositary receipts shot up 50.8 percen t, to $28.65, while the sector was flat. The analyst is sticking with Sistema, assigning the GDRs a target price of $35. He also favors MegaFon, a Moscow-based mobile-phone services provider, because its yield is attractive and the company has zero exposure to Ukraine. At $35, his price objective for MegaFon’s GDRs represents a 16.6 premium to their value at the end of May. Kim, who reports on five Russian telecommunications names and an additional six companies in surrounding regions, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s in finance and economics from Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He joined VTB Capital in 2012, following a five-year stint as a telecoms analyst at Renaissance Capital, and in March relocated from Moscow to New York. “Ivan follows his stocks very closely and reacts quickly to the news flow, which is essential nowadays,” another booster declares. |
The 2014 All-Russia Research Team: Telecommunications, No. 1: Ivan Kim
