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The 2016 All-Europe Research Team: France, No. 2: Pierre Boucheny & team

As he has done the past two years, Pierre Boucheny shepherds his Kepler Cheuvreux team in Paris to second place.

Pierre Boucheny & team
Kepler Cheuvreux
First-place appearances: 13

Total appearances: 25

Team debut: 1992

As he has done the past two years,Pierre Bouchenyshepherds his Kepler Cheuvreux team in Paris to second place. The group’s full panoply of client services is a one-stop shop for investors, insists one fund manager, who deems the firm’s annual Autumn Conference — which convenes in Paris each September — a “must-attend” event, with “lots of access to the French market. They take a pan-European view, which gives the best and broadest coverage in France, especially for small and midcaps. I’ve never gone wrong taking their advice.” The 21 analysts report on 146 French companies, and they are sticking with long-standing favorite Cie. Générale des Établissements Michelin. The Clermont-Ferrand–based legendary tire manufacturer is “an underappreciated play” on the rising demand for replacement tires amid the European recovery, explains Boucheny, 55. Its share price should be bolstered, he contends, by a range of “supportive catalysts,” such as an increasingly shareholder-friendly management team, which in November announced a €372 million ($410 million) modernization and restructuring campaign for Michelin’s operations in Germany, Italy and the U.K. Changes scheduled for completion by 2018 include upgrades to a Scotland-based plant turning out tires for both passenger vehicles and light trucks along with the phasing out of an unprofitable truck-tire plant in Northern Ireland. The shares, meanwhile, are trading at just 10.2 times earnings and “continue to offer an attractive valuation,” Boucheny says. Their 5.4 percent advance during the 12 months through mid-January, to €79.04, led the domestic market’s gain by 7.6 percentage points. He and his teammates anticipate a further rise to €120.