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INDUSTRY ANALYSIS SELL-SIDE ANALYSIS

AlphaStars picks Asia’s top brokers in 2008

Ciancaleoni, Garg and Franks lead their respective categories by wide margins for the year
Congratulations to Mattia Ciancaleoni
of Nikko Citigroup, Nikhil Garg of UBS
and Tim Franks of Citigroup, for
winning the Japan, India, and ex-Japan
categories respectively, in FactSet’s
AlphaStars 2008 competition to identify
the best institutional sales people in the
Asia-Pacific region.
In the second year that this
competition has been run, all three held
clear winning margins in their respective
categories. Ciancaleoni clocked an
outstanding relative return of 169.6%
based on net market exposure of 35%.
He based his return on more than 700
ideas and way outpaced his peers with
Thomas Taw of Instinet clocking a
nonetheless laudable 96.4% gain.
Nikhil Garg was also well ahead of
the field in India. He made a relative
return of 82.8% for the year based on
net exposure of -72% on the back of just
five ideas.
Chirag Bhatia of B&K Securities
returned 63.3% based on 129 ideas.
In the ex-Japan category, Tim
Franks made 62.2% on the year with
Citigroup colleague, Mark Bowers,
making 35.8%. Again the approaches
were different. Franks made his returns
off 128 ideas while Bowers applied just 32
ideas by comparison for the year.
Indeed, in the Top Stock Pickers
stakes, Bowers led on the long side in Asia
ex-Japan in 2008. Sunny Park of Daiwa
Securities led on the short side, while
Augustine Chen of Deutsche Bank had the
best single idea.
In India, this accolade went to Ashish
Kapur of Credit Suisse with Vikram
Babulkar (Dolat Capital) and Hemal Ghia
(B&K Securities) coming through to lead
on the long and short sides, respectively.
In Japan, Ciancaleoni was best long and
short stock picker in 2008. Kentaro
Takeuchi, again of Nikko Citigroup, had
the best single idea during the year.
Good luck to all of the participants in
the competition in 2009. Market
conditions are sure to continue to keep
everyone on their toes!
To take part in the AlphaStars
competition please register on:
www.factset.com/survey/alphastars

ALPHA STARS ASIA EX-JAPAN: 2008 RESULTS Best stock picker Asia-Ex Japan: 2008
Best Long Stock Picker: Mark Bowers Citigroup
Net market Relative return vs Relative Best Short Stock Picker: Sunny Park Daiwa Securities
Name Firm No. of ideas exposure (%) MSCI Asia Pacific (%) success ratio (%) Single Best Pick: Augustine Chen Deutsche Bank
Tim Franks Citigroup 128 7% 62.23 64.89
Mark Bowers Citigroup 32 78% 35.75 56.25
Graeme Bateman Nomura 22 65% 35.1 53.33

ALPHA STARS ASIA EX-JAPAN: Q4 2008 RESULTS

Net market Relative return vs Relative
Name Firm No. of ideas exposure (%) MSCI Asia Pacific (%) success ratio (%)
Tim Franks Citigroup 128 7% 62.23 64.89
Graeme Bateman Nomura 11 72% 33.44 64.29 Tim Franks,
Sarah-Jane Wagg UBS 10 88% 27.6 50 Citigroup

ALPHA STARS JAPAN: 2008 RESULTS Best stock picker Japan: 2008
Best Long Stock Picker: Mattia Ciancaleoni Nikko Citigroup
Net market Relative return vs Relative Best Short Stock Picker: Mattia Ciancaleoni Nikko Citigroup
Name Firm No. of ideas exposure (%) MSCI Asia Pacific (%) success ratio (%) Single Best Pick: Kentaro Takeuchi Nikko Citigroup
Mattia Ciancaleoni Nikko Citigroup 714 35% 169.63 50.14
Thomas Taw Instinet 137 -36% 96.44 60.71
Malcolm Bunn Mitsubishi UFJ Securities 259 -34% 79.77 59.47

ALPHA STARS JAPAN: Q4 2008 RESULTS

Net market Relative return vs Relative
Name Firm No. of ideas exposure (%) MSCI Asia Pacific (%) success ratio (%)
Thomas Taw Instinet 67 -59% 88.66 57.97
Taketora Furuta Nikko Citigroup 475 18% 85.75 47.02 Mattia Ciancaleoni,
Mattia Ciancaleoni Nikko Citigroup 437 11% 83.16 49.76 Nikko Citigroup

ALPHA STARS INDIA: 2008 RESULTS Best stock picker India: 2008
Best Long Stock Picker: Vikram Babulkar Dolat Capital
Net market Relative return vs Relative Best Short Stock Picker: Hemal Ghia B & K Securities
Name Firm No. of ideas exposure (%) MSCI Asia Pacific (%) success ratio (%) Single Best Pick: Ashish Kapur Credit Suisse
Nikhil Garg UBS 5 -72% 82.83 100
Chirag Bhatia B & K Securities 129 1% 63.29 55.12
Malay Sameer Kotak Securities 46 43% 50.98 71.74

ALPHA STARS INDIA: Q4 2008 RESULTS

Net market Relative return vs Relative
Name Firm No. of ideas exposure (%) MSCI Asia Pacific (%) success ratio (%)
Malay Sameer Kotak Securities 5 46% 98.55 100
Nikhil Garg UBS 5 -70% 78.56 100 Nikhil Garg,
Chirag Bhatia B & K Securities 86 -9% 49.7 54.76 UBS

12 January 2009 ©AsiaHedge