2016 All-Asia Research Team: Consumer/Staples, No. 1: Young-Ah Han, Yuanyuan (Tina) Long & team

Young-Ah Han, Yuanyuan (Tina) Long & team

Bank of America
Merrill Lynch

First-Place Appearances: 6

Total Appearances: 10

Team Debut: 2007

Young-Ah Hanand newcomerYuanyuan (Tina) Longguide Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s consumer staples crew to first place. Over the past five years, the firm occupied the winner’s circle in the previously combined Consumer sector, and now it captures the No. 1 positions on both this roster and Consumer/Discretionary, where Han and Chen Luo direct coverage. Together with Bryan Song, Seoul-based Han, who debuted in 2013, also co-heads the group that earns top honors for tracking of South Korea. Long is stationed in Hong Kong and has been a China-focused researcher at BofA Merrill since joining the firm in April 2008. She previously worked in credit risk and wealth management at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Toronto and Hong Kong and holds an MSc in finance from Quebec’s Concordia University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in investment economics from the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing. Their 12-person team monitors 60 regional staples names from offices throughout Asia ex-Japan, and they are forecasting that 2016 is likely to be a year of lackluster growth and low visibility for the industry, especially in China. “The main issues, other than common headwinds such as macro weakness, rising eCommerce and the commercial property glut, are the shift from consumer goods to services and the increasing supply-demand mismatch within consumer goods,” explains Han. “In [South] Korea, for the last three years, we have witnessed valuation rerating in the sector on growth expectations from China exposure and defensive rotation out of exporters. Given the rich valuation and overall high earnings expectations, we see little upside on the sector overall.”