Praveen Choudhary & team Morgan Stanley

Down one notch to No. 3 is the Morgan Stanley team of four overseen by Praveen Choudhary, who also guides runner-up teams in the Conglomerates and Hong Kong sectors. “I like his models, stock picking, clear thought processes and framework for identifying stocks,” marvels one backer. The analysts, who work out of Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore, cover seven stocks. They have a positive view on budget hotels in China and gaming companies in Macau. “Last year, Macau stocks outperformed the Hang Seng index by 40 to 50 percent, and we expect outperformance to continue in 2012,” Choudhary says. In January the researchers dubbed Sands China their top pick for the year in the gaming subsector, in part on the appeal of its newest property, the Sands Cotai Central in Macau, as well as its focus on attracting upscale clients. “These factors, along with higher contribution from the mass segment, differentiate Sands China from its peers,” he adds. Clients are impressed. “Praveen is a strong conceptual thinker who boils down the key issues into numbers with clarity,” asserts one ally. — ­Leslie Kramer