Harm Meijer & team J.P. Morgan
second team Bernd Stahli & team BofA Merrill Lynch
third team Michael Prew Nomura
Harm Meijer, 35, leads his three-person team at J.P. Morgan back to the top spot after spending last year in second place. The analysts, praised by clients for their “strong opinions” and ability to “call trends in the sector well,” upgraded U.K.-based commercial property developer Hammerson from neutral to overweight last February, at 226.67p, saying the real estate investment trust’s efforts to raise capital through rights offerings would result in improved cash flow and higher dividends. The stock had zoomed to 424p by the end of the year, a jump of 87.1 percent that easily outdistanced the sector’s impressive 58.8 percent advance. Slipping to second place is the BofA trio managed by Bernd Stahli, who has an “impressive ability to ask controversial questions in the face of adversity,” according to one booster. The team downgraded Liberty International to underperform in mid-January 2009, saying the London-based shopping-center operator needed to recapitalize through a rights offering. The shares trailed the sector by 8.9 percentage points through mid-August, but the REIT did recapitalize, prompting the analysts to upgrade it to neutral. Liberty’s shares advanced 6.1 percent through December but still trailed the sector by 4.1 points. Unranked last year, Nomura’s Michael Prew lands in third place. In April he issued a valuation-based buy recommendation on London-based developer Land Securities, at 466.19p. The REIT’s share price had surged 46.9 percent, to 685p, by the end of the year.
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