Tat Wai (Darwin) Lam & team Citi
Jumping from runner-up to second place is the Citi team of 11, which one client praises for its early, contrarian upgrade of China’s largest nonlife insurer, PICC Property & Casualty Co. Hong Kong–based squad leader Tat Wai (Darwin) Lam “was the first to turn positive on the stock back in late 2009, and PICC turned out to be the best-performing stock in the sector in both 2010 and 2011,” marvels one backer. “He is also the only one to turn cautious on PICC at the beginning of 2012, and year-to-date it is the worst performer.” The team downgraded the stock from buy to neutral in January, at HK$10.28, and by the end of March, the shares had slumped 10.1 percent, to HK$9.24, and trailed the sector by 18.1 percentage points. The analysts track 26 stocks from offices in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney and Taipei — and they are bullish on life insurance growth in China. “We expect macro policy easing to increase liquidity and hence demand for life insurance products,” Lam says. — Leslie Kramer