The 2014 All-Europe Research Team: Leisure & Hotels, No. 1: Victoria Lee & team

Victoria Lee & team

Barclays

First-Place Appearances: 1 Total Appearances: 5 Team Debut: 2010

After three years at No. 2,Victoria Lee巴克莱和她的三个年代eize the top spot for the first time. The London-based analysts follow 24 companies, and Lee, 33, says within that group, they are generally positive on hotels, neutral on caterers and travel services providers and negative on gaming companies. Investors, however, should be aware that improvement in economic conditions will not be uniform across the region. “We think 2014 will see brighter macro conditions in some parts of Europe, especially the U.K.,” Lee notes. Accordingly, money managers should “be positioned in names with the greatest exposure to [those markets], as this is where we see the greatest chance of positive earnings-per-share momentum.” More specifically, Lee’s team suggests playing the European macro recovery by buying French hotel operator Accor. The researchers expect Accor to “realize value through a demerger or sale of the respective operating company or property company businesses,” she advises. One German portfolio manager lauds Lee’s “very detailed knowledge and explanations of the earnings drivers” of her stocks. “We earned a lot of money from her advice,” he adds. The recently married Lee, now Stern, joined Barclays in 2009 after tracking this sector for a year at Lehman Brothers. That followed her five-year stint doing likewise at UBS. She earned a first-class degree in experimental psychology from England’s University of Oxford.