The 2014 All-Russia Research Team: Corporate Debt, No. 3: Kay Hope

Kay Hope
Bank of America Merrill Lynch

First-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 1

Analyst debut: 2014

London-based Kay Hope debuts on this list in third place. The Bank of America Merrill Lynch researcher monitors 25 companies, 13 of which are Russian, and “is attuned to the complex dynamics of the region,” says one asset manager in Boston, “which gives her insights one would do well to heed.” Since May, Hope has been recommending that clients overweight the bonds issued by VimpelCom, a Netherlands-based company whose holdings include one of Russia’s largest telecommunications services providers. VimpelCom had agreed to sell a majority stake in its Algerian mobile phone supplier Orascom Télécoms Algérie, or Djezzy, to the North African country’s government, which would leave the company with significant funding for reducing debt. She likewise advises overweighting the 2022 and 2023 notes of Gazprom Neft, crediting the St. Petersburg–based oil producer’s favorable three- to six-month outlook. The investment-grade credits had spread to as much as 55 basis points over “similar maturity Gazprom bonds,” she says, forecasting that they will “trade more in line with the parent company’s.”

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