Michael Harris & team BofA Merrill Lynch
second team Kazim Andaç & team Deutsche
third team Akin Tüzün & team Credit Suisse
BofA claims the winner’s circle for a second straight year — and for the eighth time in nine years. The six-member team led by Michael Harris, 40, works out of offices in Istanbul and London, with help from a telecoms analyst in Israel. In April the researchers upgraded Türkiye Halk Bankası to buy, at 4.24 Turkish lira, on improving earnings and increasing profitability. By late January, Halk’s stock had skyrocketed 142.9 percent, to Tl10.30, and outperformed Turkey’s broad market by 63.4 percentage points. BofA’s analysts “make calls further out than anyone else,” marvels one investor.
Newcomer Kazim Andaç captains Deutsche’s Istanbul-based squad of six up one rung to second place. “The team is on the ground in Istanbul, and the quality of their written reports is very good,” says one U.S. backer. The researchers highlighted their buy rating on Türk Hava Yolları in June, at Tl1.86, after the airline reported strong first-quarter 2009 traffic results and rising market share. The stock soared a jaw-dropping 195.7 percent, to Tl5.50, through January.
Credit Suisse, unranked since 2001, grabs the No. 3 spot this year under the direction of newcomer Akin Tüzün. In February 2009 the London-based quartet broke with the consensus and upgraded Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası to buy, at Tl1.24, on the belief that the firm would benefit from anticipated interest rate cuts by Turkey’s central bank. The shares had leapt 222.6 percent, to Tl4, by the end of January.
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