< The 2016 All-Europe Research Team
Peter Bisztyga & team
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
First-place appearances: 6
Total appearances: 23
Team debut: 1992
Rebounding from runner-up, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s European utilities team in London reclaims the No. 3 spot it held in 2014. Following the departure of Christopher Kuplent to become head of the firm’s pan-European oil and gas research, Peter Bisztyga assumed management of this sector’s coverage upon joining the firm in May 2014 from Barclays, where he held the same responsibilities. The 39-year-old analyst received a master’s degree in economics from England’s University of Cambridge. His five-strong squad follows 32 companies — and it serves as “an independent voice that sets the bar high,” one admirer insists. Bisztyga and his associates have been advising clients to sell the shares of RWE since downgrading their rating on the German electricity and gas giant from neutral in January 2015. Falling coal and oil prices are the headwinds they cited. A year on, the stock was trading at €10.40, having shed 51.1 percent and lagged its regional peers by 45.4 percentage points. A better choice, the team contends, is France’s Suez Environnement Co., in large part because the water utility and environmental services provider is delivering strong earnings expansion in its international operations. At €19.40, their price objective for the stock represents a 20 percent premium to its value in mid-January. “Peter is always on top of his game,” asserts another backer.