Marcos Assumpção & team Itaú BBA First-place appearances: 2
Total appearances: 5
Team debut: 2010 Itaú BBA’s group of four researchers under the guidance of Marcos Assumpção slips one position to land in third place. From their offices in Santiago and São Paulo, they follow ten pulp and paper companies throughout Latin America, exhibiting what one asset manager dubs “a keen sense of global market dynamics.” In January, Assumpção and his cohorts predicted that pulp prices would be driven down by oversupply. When combined with a likely decline in the Brazilian real, they believed, that would benefit domestic producers. So they reiterated their outperform ratings on Brazil’s Fibria Celulose and Suzano Papel e Celulose. As of late July the results have been mixed. The currency has not performed as projected, and the share prices have slid 16.3 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively, to 22.15 reais and 8.63 reais. Over the same period the sector declined by 9.6 percent. “Marcos’s views are thought-provoking,” asserts another loyalist, “even if his stock calls aren’t always all you would like.” Assumpção this year also captains crews that claim runner-up positions in Metals & Mining and, with co-head David Lawant, Cement & Construction.