The 2015 All-Europe Research Team: Iberia, No. 2: Bruno Silva & team

Bruno Silva & team

Banco Português de Investimento

First-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 5

Team debut: 2011

Rebounding from third place to recapture the No. 2 position it earned in 2013 is the 11-analyst Banco Português de Investimento team overseen byBruno Silva. BPI’s researchers report on 90 listed Iberian names, and “clearly, they’re the specialists on Portuguese stocks,” asserts one client who pronounces himself grateful for their “local insights and very specific coverage during the periphery rally. They did a good job steering us through both the downturn and the upturn — and then the recent bond collapse at Portugal’s largest bank.” Among favored names, Liberbank is a potential standout, the analysts believe. Rated buy and trading at only €0.62 at the end of last month, it is “one of the cheapest banks to own in Spain,” Silva says. Liberbank’s positive features include “very low real estate exposure, risks that seem fairly contained,” and the likelihood that the shares could “become a dividend play given its low-risk business model and enviable capital position,” adds the 39-year-old crew chief. He and his cohorts believe that a price of €1 is justified. They also like CTT – Correios de Portugal, a diversified industrial company that distributes the Portuguese national post and provides logistics and other functions. Given CTT’s extraordinary consumer network, its financial and business services segment has the “potential for a wider product range, in emulation of the model pursued by other European companies in its sector,” Silva explains. Its executive team is meanwhile cutting costs, raising mail prices and positioning CTT to benefit just as Portugal’s economic recovery kicks in.