KangaNews Fixed Income Research Poll 2013: results announced
- Wednesday, 03 July 2013
KangaNews is proud to reveal the results of its 2013 Fixed Income Research Poll, in which Australian institutional investors were asked to vote for the best research providers across a range of sectors relevant to their market. This year's top performers have almost all turned in consistently strong results since the poll was introduced in 2011, but there is also a notable success for a resurgent investment bank.
Westpac Institutional Bank (Westpac) was the biggest winner in the poll, taking top spot in the coveted overall category as well as two sectoral gongs. Deutsche Bank also put in a predictably strong showing, taking sole top honours in three categories and sharing first place in the corporate sector with UBS Investment Bank. ANZ retained its crown as the best provider of macroeconomic research, while Citi emerged from outside the top five in 2012 to snatch the win in the supranational, sovereign and agency (SSA) sector.
KANGANEWS FIXED INCOME RESEARCH POLL 2013: FULL RESULTS
* denotes 2012 category winner.
Which team provides the best overall research on Australian fixed income?
| Rank | Institution | Team |
| 1 | Westpac Institutional Bank | David Goodman, Damien McColough, Timothy Jung, Altaz Dagha, Martin Jacques, Brendon Cooper, Christopher Walter |
| 2 | Deutsche Bank* | David Plank, Ken Crompton, Adam Boyton, Phil O'Donaghoe, Augusto Mederios, Anthony Ip |
| 3 | UBS Investment Bank | Matthew Johnson, Scott Haslem, George Tharenou, Chris Viol, Andrew Lilley |
| 4 | Commonwealth Bank | Adam Donaldson, Philip Brown, Alex Stanley, Tariq Chotani, Tally Dewan |
| 5 | ANZ | Warren Hogan, Ivan Colhoun, Justin Fabo, Tony Morriss, David Croy, Kerry Duce, Tom Kenny, Richard Yetsenga, Andrew Salter |
Which team provides the best research and analysis of Australian government and semi-government bonds?
| Rank | Institution | Team |
| 1 | Westpac Institutional Bank* | Damien McColough, Timothy Jung, Altaz Dagha |
| 2 | Commonwealth Bank | Adam Donaldson, Philip Brown, Alex Stanley |
| 3 | Deutsche Bank | David Plank, Ken Crompton |
| 4 | J.P.Morgan | Sally Auld |
| 5 | National Australia Bank | Peter Jolly, Skye Masters, Rodrigo Catril |
Which team provides the best research and analysis of supranational, sovereign and agency bonds?
| Rank | Institution | Team |
| 1 | Citi | Matt King, Ben Byrne, Steven Mansell, Carl Ang |
| 2 | UBS Investment Bank | Matthew Johnson, Andrew Lilley |
| 3 | Westpac Institutional Bank | Damien McColough, Timothy Jung, Altaz Dagha |
| 4 | Deutsche Bank | David Plank, Ken Crompton |
| 5 | Commonwealth Bank* | Tariq Chotani, Philip Brown, Adam Donaldson |
Which team provides the best research and analysis on foreign exchange?
| Rank | Institution | Team |
| 1 | Deutsche Bank* | John Horner |
| 2 | ANZ | Richard Yetsenga, Andrew Salter |
| 3 | Commonwealth Bank | Richard Grace, Joe Capurso, Chris Tennent-Brown, Peter Dragicevich |
| 4 | Westpac Institutional Bank | Robert Rennie, Sean Callow |
| 5 | Bank of America Merrill Lynch | Adarsh Sinha |
Which team provides the best research and analysis on structured finance?
| Rank | Institution | Team |
| 1 | Westpac Institutional Bank* | David Goodman, Martin Jacques |
| 2 | Macquarie Bank | Stephen Maher |
| 3 | Commonwealth Bank | Tally Dewan |
| 4 | Aquasia | Mark Bayley |
| 5 | Deutsche Bank | Augusto Mederios, Anthony Ip |
Which team provides the best research and analysis on Australian corporations?
| Rank | Institution | Team |
| 1= | Deutsche Bank | Augusto Mederios, Anthony Ip |
| 1= | UBS Investment Bank* | Chris Viol |
| 3 | Westpac Institutional Bank* | Brendon Cooper, Chris Walter |
| 4 | National Australia Bank | Michael Bush, Ken Hanton |
| 5 | Citi | Matt King, Ben Byrne |
Which team provides the best trade ideas?
| Rank | Institution | Team |
| 1 | Deutsche Bank* | David Plank, Ken Crompton, Augusto Madeiros, Anthony Ip |
| 2 | Westpac Institutional Bank | Damien McColough, Timothy Jung, Altaz Dagha |
| 3 | UBS Investment Bank | Matthew Johnson, Andrew Lilley, Chris Viol |
| 4 | J.P.Morgan | Sally Auld |
| 5 | Commonwealth Bank | Adam Donaldson, Philip Brown, Alex Stanley |
Which team provides the best research on relative value and international comparative analysis?
| Rank | Institution | Team |
| 1 | Deutsche Bank* | David Plank, Ken Crompton |
| 2 | UBS Investment Bank | Matthew Johnson, Scott Haslem, George Tharenou, Chris Viol, Andrew Lilley |
| 3 | Aquasia | Mark Bayley |
| 4 | Westpac Institutional Bank | Damien McColough, Timothy Jung, Altaz Dagha |
| 5 | Nomura | Martin Whetton, George Goncalves |
Which team provides the best macroeconomic research and analysis?
| Rank | Institution | Team |
| 1 | ANZ* | Warren Hogan, Ivan Colhoun, Justin Fabo |
| 2 | Westpac Institutional Bank | Bill Evans |
| 3 | Deutsche Bank | Adam Boyton, Phil O'Donaghoe |
| 4 | Commonwealth Bank | Michael Blythe, Michael Workman, John Peters, Diana Mousina, Gareth Aird |
| 5 | UBS Investment Bank | Scott Halsem, George Tharenou |
Delivery and quality
As well as quality of content, the best-performing houses in 2013 emphasise delivery of their material as a key differentiator. "We have really focused on the consistency of our delivery, as well as a responsive and accessible approach to customer engagement. The market has responded positively to this," says David Goodman, global head of GCM strategy at Westpac in Sydney.
Westpac expects to continue innovating in this regard. "We will have a far greater focus on customer interaction," Goodman adds. "On our new platform, WIBIQ, our customers will have a much richer user experience. All our publications will be available and delivered to the customer uniquely tailored to their needs, whether via desktop, smartphone or tablet. This will revolutionise the way we interact with our customers."
David Plank, Sydney-based head of macro research and strategy at Deutsche Bank, also highlights the need to have visibility as well as strong insights. "We've built a very experienced research team and retained that team successfully," he tells KangaNews. "But you can't underestimate the value of the sales team in driving our standing. If research ideas are not out in front of clients it doesn't matter how good they are – the market will never know."
For Warren Hogan, chief economist at ANZ in Sydney, face-to-face communication is key. "We don't rely on presentations and publications to communicate on these important issues," he tells KangaNews. "We get out on the road and visit our broader customer base and institutional investors – because each constituency is interested in the other. We can then feed the information we gather in face-to-face meetings into our research."
Meanwhile the ascent of Citi as an SSA research house is based at least in part on the bank's growing presence as an intermediary. Steven Mansell, head of interest rate strategy, Asia Pacific at Citi in Sydney, explains: "The team has expanded its research capacity in Australian dollar spread products over the past year, with the SSA market being a particular focal point. This complements the strong investment that has also been made by Citi's primary and trading platforms in this area."
Poll methodology
The KangaNews Fixed Income Research Poll provides the Australian domestic fixed income investor community with the opportunity to acknowledge the analysts that distribute the best coverage of areas relevant to the Australian debt markets. Voting was conducted through an online platform with only Australian-based institutional investor votes counting towards final results.
Now in its third year, over 50 domestic investment firms participated in the poll representing the majority of key institutional investment funds in the Australian market across the fund management, insurance and balance sheet sectors.
Voters were asked to nominate the top three providers of research in nine categories: eight individual sectors and the overall best house. There was also a brief survey asking investors for their opinions on the state of Australian fixed income research in general.
• Full coverage of the 2013 KangaNews Fixed Income Research Poll, including the survey of investor opinions on the state of Australian research provision, will be published in the July/August edition of KangaNews magazine.
