Industries - Insurance & Other Nonbank Financials - First Team

Masao Muraki Deutsche Securities

The buy side says: “He was one of the first analysts to put Japanese institutions in a global context.”

We expanded Insurance this year to include Other Nonbank Financials, but the change doesn’t stop Deutsche Securities’ Masao Muraki from claiming a second consecutive first-place finish. The 35-year-old has “broad knowledge and deep insight into all the financial industries,” according to one client. Muraki reports on 11 companies — the same as last year — and his outlook is generally upbeat. Life insurance stocks are benefiting from rising long-term interest rates, he notes, and investors should be prepared to invest in them just as soon as rates move a bit higher. Meanwhile, “the nonlife insurance sector has faced a deteriorating loss ratio and historic number of catastrophes, including the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Thai floods,” Muraki says. “While it is difficult to predict the occurrence of natural disasters, underlying operations are improving, a lot of bad news is already out, and we believe nonlife shares have entered an uptrend.” His current favorites include diversified financial services firm Orix Corp., which is dually headquartered in Osaka and Tokyo; Muraki believes Orix is well positioned to generate growth in core profit areas and gains on sales of real estate assets. “We expect the stock to rise moderately,” he says. — Leslie Kramer

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