Lehman Boost Propels Barclays to No. 1 in U.S. Fixed-Income Research
Laurence Kantor faced a monumental task last fall after Barclays acquired the North American assets of Lehman Brothers Holdings, the legendary Wall Street outfit felled by overexposure to subprime-related assets. Kantor, global head of research at Barclays Capital, needed to integrate the 165 ex-Lehman analysts with BarCap’s team of 80, expand coverage in such growth areas as mortgage strategy and fundamental credit research, scale back coverage and eliminate positions in structured securities and other areas of declining investor interest, and upgrade the firm’s technological offerings to get information to clients faster.When all was said and done, Kantor had created a 160-member U.S. fixed-income research department that outshines all others, according to participants in the 2009 All-America Fixed-Income Research Team survey, Institutional Investor’s annual ranking of the U.S.’s leading fixed-income analysts. BarCap wins 46 total team positions, including first-place analysts in 15 sectors; last year, as independent entities, BarCap and Lehman captured a total of 55 positions, including 17 first-place winners.
Coming up strong behind BarCap is J.P. Morgan, which returns in second place but trails the leader by a much narrower margin than before: The firm, which picked up eight fixed-income analysts after last year’s government-backed takeover of Bear Stearns Cos., nabs 42 total positions, six more than last year, including 19 teams in first place — four more than in 2008. Third-ranked Banc of America Securities also returns to the same spot as last year — strengthened by its government-sponsored acquisition of Merrill Lynch — with 34 positions, the same total the two firms earned last year as separate entities.
The only firm in the top five that hasn’t been involved in a merger or acquisition is Goldman, Sachs & Co., which rises one rung to fourth place after gaining four positions, for a total of 22. Wells Fargo & Co.’s December merger with Wachovia Corp. vaults Wells Fargo Securities into the top five for the first time; the firm, with 14 positions, finishes in fifth place, one notch better than Wachovia Securities last year.
To view the complete list of winning firms, click on the Leaderboard tab above.
To view the winning analysts and teams, click on Leading Analysts.
More-detailed coverage of the 2009 All-America Fixed-Income Research Team can be found in the September issue of Institutional Investor. To start your subscription, click here.
Click here for the 2008 results
For more information about these rankings, please contact Alyssa Walker at awalker@iiresearchgroup.com.
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Picking the Team
Institutional Investor selected the members of the 18th annual All-America Fixed-Income Research Team by surveying more than 1,600 money managers and buy-side analysts at more than 560 institutions managing an estimated $11.5?trillion in U.S. fixed-income assets. We received responses from 90 percent of the 100 biggest fixed-income investors on the II 300, our ranking of the biggest institutional investors in the U.S.A numerical score was produced for individual analysts and teams by weighting each vote based on the fund manager’s U.S. fixed-income assets under management and on the rank that the respondent awarded to the individual or firm (first, second, third). Separate weightings were used for High-Yield and Emerging-Markets categories. Those scores were used to determine the respective rankings. Winners also had to achieve a minimum vote count.
Two sectors, Municipals/Generalist and Municipals/Health Care, were eliminated from this year’s ballot. We polled 14 Investment-Grade sectors, all of which produced complete results; 19 High-Yield sectors, 17 of which produced complete results (Services had only a first-