Slipping one notch to third place is VTB Capital’s Maria Kolbina, who also claims the top spot in the Consumer sector. “Maria is prescient in her perceptions and always gives top-notch client service,” affirms one loyalist. Among Kolbina’s preferred residential property developers is PIK Group, which she named her top pick in that space in April 2013, citing the Moscow-based homebuilder’s mounting earnings and declining debt. By the end of last month, PIK’s global depositary receipts had leaped 37.4 percent, to $2.61, outstripping rivals Etalon Group and LSR Group by 28.3 and 49.6 percentage points, respectively. The VTB analyst keeps sights on just four Russian real estate stocks and favors LSR going forward, thanks to the St. Petersburg–based developer’s low valuation and generous dividend yield. At $6, her price objective for the GDRs implies an upside of 52.3 percent from their trading value late in May. |
The 2014 All-Russia Research Team: Real Estate, No. 3: Maria Kolbina