Amidst a historic election cycle, money managers have designated BTG Pactual as the new No. 1 provider in Latin America research.
The Brazil-based firm, which placed third last year, moved up two spots to take the crown, edging incumbent victor JPMorgan Chase & Co. into second place.
It was a narrow victory: With analyst teams ranking in 23 sectors, BTG Pactual claimed just one more team position than JPMorgan, which had 22 ranked teams. In its 26th iteration, the 2018 Latin America Research Team included 25 sectors comprising industries, regions, and macroeconomic disciplines.
Institutional Investor received responses from more than 1,000 investors at over 500 institutions managing about $320 billion in the region’s equities and $414 billion in its debt. These respondents elected a familiar slate of sell-side firms to the top five, with Itau BBA holding steady at No. 3. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which ranked second last year, tied for fourth place with UBS, which finished fifth in 2017.
The members of Institutional Investor's 26th annual Latin America Research Team were selected by over 1,000 representatives of 518 institutions that collectively manage an estimated $320 billion in Latin American equities and approximately $414 billion in Latin American debt. The names of those surveyed are kept confidential to ensure their continuing cooperation.
Participants are asked to vote for individual analysts. In our annual team-based ranking, these votes are combined for firms in each sector. This year we have also introduced an individual-based ranking. Instead of aggregating all of the firm’s scores under a given sector, the individual-base leader’s table ranks each of the winners based on their personal score in the sector.
For both rankings, a numerical score is produced by weighting each vote based on both the respondent's assets under management and place awarded the brokerage firm (first, second, third or fourth). Ranks are then determined using those scores. Runners-up are designated when a team’s vote or an individual’s score come within 35 percent of the third teams' scores.
Research directors indicate which analysts oversee coverage of a particular sector, and the individuals cited as team leaders, for the team-based ranking, may not necessarily be the ones who receive the most votes on behalf of that firm. Co-leaders, where applicable, are deemed to share equal responsibility for directing coverage, and their names are presented alphabetically. Individuals who switched firms after April 20, 2018 are cited at their previous organizations.
There were no changes to this year's ballot, which covered 25 industries, countries/regions and macroeconomic disciplines. All winning teams and individuals are required to meet a minimum vote threshold. Voters must meet eligibility requirements, and their ballots are subject to review by our Research Operations Group.
The 2018 Latin America Research Team was compiled by Senior Research Editors Tucker Ewing, and Denise Hoguet and Researchers Denise Best and Xiao Lu.