In the post-pandemic era, market volatility has been the driving force behind sell-side research – enhancing the efforts of providers and making it, arguably, all the more critical.
With inflationary and geopolitical pressures on the forefront, U.K. brokers say investors are paying sharp attention to the markets, prompting a greater need for expert insights to help them navigate uncertainties.
“We’ve never had a more turbulent period than the last three years,” said Charles Hall, head of research at Peel Hunt, in a video interview. “In very turbulent times, the analysts that have real insight into companies — the dynamics, how they’re operating, what the executives are going to do — can add a huge amount of value.”
To select the members of our 2022 UK Small & Mid-Cap Research Team, Institutional Investor solicited the opinions of portfolio managers and analysts at institutions with major securities holdings in Europe. We received responses from almost 400 investment professionals at 281 institutions.
Participants first rated their top firms in each sector on a scale from 1-5, and then separately rated individual analysts or economists/strategists at those firms to create two distinct results for each sector. A numerical score was produced by weighting each vote based on both the respondent’s European equity commissions and their rating.
Using those scores, ranks were then determined. Firms/analysts were designated runners‐up when their scores came within 35 percent of the third-place scores.
This year, ESG Research was added to the survey. The Best UK Small & Mid-Cap Broker award is an aggregate of all 19 research categories, plus the Sales, Trading, Corporate Access and Corporate Broking categories.
The individuals surveyed are kept confidential to ensure continuing cooperation. Voters must meet eligibility requirements, and winners must achieve a minimum vote count.