When it comes to high quality sell-side research in the developing markets of Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and South Africa, the buy-side is spoiled for choice — at least according to Institutional Investor’s annual ranking of firms.
BofA Securities, HBSC, and J.P. Morgan Chase captured a three-way tie for first place in II’s 2023 Emerging EMEA Research Team ranking. More than 930 investment professionals across 486 institutions with significant emerging EMEA securities holdings elevated BofA from 2022’s third place finish to join last year’s winners HSBC and J.P. Morgan.
Each winning firm captured 17 total team positions, and HSBC once again had the most first team positions with eight. Morgan Stanley and Citi both improved one spot to place fourth and fifth, respectively.
Raj Sinha, head of EEMEA Equity Research for HSBC, reported another challenging year for emerging market equities due to U.S. inflation and unresolved Chinese growth issues, but also said that there are signs for optimism.
“We see a lot to be enthusiastic about in the EMEA region — between turnaround stories, new technologies, and exciting opportunities that are underpinned by some of the region’s demographics and ambitions for future city development,” he added.
While markets and sectors sensitive to Chinese growth have generally underperformed, the South African equity market, as a whole, and the Saudi Arabian materials sector stand out. “Markets where inflation is falling sharply, like CE3, have performed well,” he added. “Equally markets with a good structural growth story have also outperformed; this includes Greek equities and domestic Saudi Arabia. Anemic oil prices and a weaker USD have weighed on GCC markets more broadly. Turkish equities were impeded by USD weakness through H1; however, since then, the appointment of a new economics team and the return to a more orthodox macro policy have led to a sharp equity turnaround.”
Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, which is approaching the 18-month mark, the overall landscape of Emerging EMEA has changed and the opportunity set for investors has shifted, according to providers in the region.
To select the members of our 2023 Emerging EMEA Research Team, Institutional Investor solicited the opinions of portfolio managers and analysts at institutions with major securities holdings in emerging EMEA. We received responses from 934 investment professionals at 486 institutions.
Participants first rated their top firms in each sector on a scale from 1-5, and then separately rated individual analysts or economists/strategists at those firms to create two distinct results for each sector. A numerical score was produced by weighting each vote based on both the responding firm’s emerging EMEA equity commissions and their rating.
Using those scores, ranks were then determined. Firms/analysts were designated runners‐up when their scores came within 35 percent of the third-place scores.
The individuals surveyed are kept confidential to ensure continuing cooperation. Voters must meet eligibility requirements, and winners must achieve a minimum vote count.