Yankun Hou & team UBS
The buy side says: “What I like most are his gutsy stock calls.”
Unranked last year, the five-member UBS crew shoots straight in to first place under the watchful eye of Hong Kong–based Yankun Hou, who led last year’s No. 2 team for Nomura; the 40-year-old also co-pilots a runner-up team in Industrials. “His work is comprehensive, and he has shown good judgment on stocks,” cheers one ally. One example: The team urged investors to buy China’s Geely Automobile Holdings in November, at HK$1.97, on strong export growth, among other factors. The stock rocketed 54.3 percent, to HK$3.04, through March. Hou was a research scientist at Yale University’s medical school before he switched careers; he earned an MBA from New York’s Cornell University, then joined UBS in 2005 as an autos analyst. He moved to Lehman Brothers the following year and returned to UBS in October. — Paul Sweeney
