< The 2014 All-Europe Fixed-Income Research Team
& team Barclays First-Place Appearances: 2
Total Appearances: 2
Team Debut: 2013 Darren Hook of Barclays is “so intelligent and well plugged in that listening to him is always fascinating,” declares one U.K.-based asset manager. The 42-year-old team leader guides his duo to a repeat first-place showing here and, with Christophe Boulanger, co-captains the top-ranked crew in Investment-Grade Manufacturing/General Industrials. In September, Hook and his colleague, who work out of London, recommended a pair trade — buying Germany-based conglomerate ThyssenKrupp’s five-year credit default swaps at 304.5 basis points and simultaneously selling Luxembourg-based steel manufacturing giant ArcelorMittal’s comparable instruments at 402.5 basis points, to pick up the spread differential. Two months later, ahead of ThyssenKrupp management’s announcement of results for the fiscal year that ended September 30, the analysts reiterated their doubts about its plans to unravel the company’s underperforming Steel Americas division. Their concern proved well founded when in December management advised that although a joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. had agreed to purchase its U.S. steel plant, no buyer had been found for its loss-making Brazilian steel mill, leaving ThyssenKrupp strapped for cash and its credit profile weak. By late December the spread between the two CDS tranches had compressed considerably, with ArcelorMittal at 230 basis points and ThyssenKrupp at 236.8 basis points. “Darren is like an encyclopedia of market data,” marvels another supporter.