< The 2014 All-Europe Fixed-Income Research Team
Christophe Boulanger,
Darren Hook
& team Barclays First-Place Appearances: 2
Total Appearances: 2
Team Debut: 2013 Holding on to the top spot on this lineup is the Barclays team under the guidance of Christophe Boulanger and Darren Hook. The 42-year-old co-chiefs lead a four-strong crew in London that takes “a tactical approach in a sometimes volatile market,” one loyalist reports. Their recent coverage of Italian aerospace and defense giant Finmeccanica is an example of that approach, clients say. In July the analysts advised overweighting Finmeccanica’s sterling 2019 notes, at 443 basis points over gilts, and simultaneously selling its credit default swaps. They expected Finmeccanica’s management to jettison the company’s underperforming Ansaldo Energia unit, to the benefit of its balance sheet and creditworthiness. It announced the sale of Ansaldo, which builds and services power plants, in October, and a month later revised downward its free-cash-flow projects. The bonds were by then 338 basis points narrower, and the CDSs had tightened by 110 basis points — so the researchers changed course, reducing the former to underweight and elevating the latter to buy. Through year’s end the swaps compressed 50 basis points further. The squad leaders impress investors as being “smart and experienced,” as another supporter puts it. This year, Boulanger also co-heads, with Thomas Southon, the top-ranked group in High-Yield Manufacturing/General Industrials, while Hook also skippers the No. 1 troupe in Investment-Grade Basic Materials.