Industries – Insurance – First

Karen Chan & team Bank of America Merrill Lynch

The buy side says: “Karen gives investors a unique, unbiased and objective view.”

Bank of America Merrill Lynch leads the lineup for a third consecutive year. Team leader Karen Chan, 37, “is very hardworking and responds to investors’ questions almost instantly,” marvels one fan. The ten-member crew reports on 30 companies from offices in Hong Kong, Mumbai, Seoul, Sydney and Taipei. “North Asian insurers may continue to be dragged down by low interest rates, while Chinese and Indian insurers are recovering from a slowdown led by regulatory changes last year,” Chan says. “It will be a long while before we get back to normalized growth.” China Life Insurance Co., which the analysts downgraded from buy to neutral back in mid-2010 — a recommendation they reiterated one year later — “has been the laggard among the life insurance names,” she notes; the stock fell 43.9 percent in the 12 months through March. Chan earned a master’s degree in Asian studies at the University of Pennsylvania and covered the sector for Nomura before moving to BofA Merrill in 2007. — Leslie Kramer

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