UBS sweeps the boards in equity ‘Oscars’

UBS sweeps the boards in equity ‘Oscars’

By Sundeep Tucker in Hong Kong

Published: November 8 2006 01:00 | Last updated: November 8 2006 01:00

UBS on Tuesday collected a string of gongs, including top-rated equity house, in the inaugural Thomson Extel survey awards for Asia Pacific, excluding Japan.

The Swiss-headquartered investment bank picked up six of 15 main brokerage awards, which were voted for by more than 100 fund management groups across Asia. The organisers also handed out 16 awards covering the region’s leading sector teams and individual analysts, six of which were won by UBS.

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Geoff Boyd, the regional head of automotive and steel research for CLSA, a Hong Kong-based broker, was named leading individual analyst. The Thomson Extel rankings began in the UK in 1974, where they are now regarded as the “City Oscars” for the boost they can provide to the pay packets of victorious analysts. The rankings have recently been expanded to include European brokers and next year will launch in the US.

UBS was named leading country house for its equity research and sales trading on India and Pakistan, Malaysia, Philippines and South Korea. As well as leading regional equity house overall, the bank also picked up the awards for leading firm for economics and strategy and leading house for equity sales.

Other notable victors included CLSA. As well as Mr Boyd’s award, CLSA was named leading equity house for China and for Taiwan.

Singapore-based Mr Boyd, a Canadian, has earned a reputation for punchy, readable research, into which he often weaves rock lyrics. His style is in keeping with CLSA’s maverick culture, which was instilled by Gary Coull, the co-founder, who died of cancer last month.

JPMorgan picked up two country awards for its equity research and sales trading and five for industry sectors.

Voting was conducted in the six weeks to October 30, and participants included 109 buyside firms managing nearly $500bn in equity assets in Asia. The awards were presented in Hong Kong on Tuesday night.

More than half of the region’s top-50 quoted companies also took part, as did 450 analysts from 51 brokerage houses. Fidelity Investments was named leading fund management firm while HSBC collected the award for best quoted company for investor relations.

The awards are sponsored by Thomson Corporation, information and technology company.