Vincent Laurencin & team Exane BNP Paribas
The buy side says: “They are very good at delving into the fundamentals on the financial statements.”
Repeating at No. 1 is the Exane BNP Paribas troupe of 40 Paris-based analysts guided by Vincent Laurencin, 34. “They’ve got very good relationships with French companies, so they provide good corporate access,” observes one portfolio manager. Among the team’s most-valued calls of the past year is a March upgrade from neutral to buy on Safran, an aerospace-and-defense conglomerate headquartered in Paris, on the belief that “the market was underestimating the prospects for future aftermarket demand” for aircraft and helicopter engines and parts. By late December the stock had soared 45.7 percent, from €18.19 to €26.50, and soared past France’s broad market by 45.6 percentage points. Laurencin’s team “has a lot of people who are locally based, and they probably do the best overall job covering pan-European stocks,” declares one satisfied client.