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| Xiang (Edmond) Huang, Matthew Spence & team |
Bank of America
Merrill Lynch |
| "They do a good job of financial modeling and have adopted an approach that’s useful to fund managers." |
Perched atop the roster for a third straight year is Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Hong Kong–basedXiang (Edmond) Huang, 42, replaces Bharat Parekh asMatthew Spence’sco-leader of the eight-member troupe; Huang also co-captains, with Euisup (Andy) Lee, the top squad in Industrials. “They’ve been around for a while, and the whole team is knowledgeable,” declares one money manager. The analysts cover some 50 stocks across Asia. Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings is among their top picks for the year, on the belief that the utility “will continue to generate stable and decent returns in a high-inflation environment,” says Spence, 39. Moreover, CKI is positioned to make acquisitions that would add to its net asset value “without triggering a credit downgrade,” the Sydney-based analyst contends. —Paul Sweeney |
