New York – Last week, Thomson Reuters announced the results of its 37th annual Extel Survey. This survey is an assessment of relevant trends in the European investment banking industry through inputs from the buy-side, the sell-side, and corporations. The survey covered some aspects related to the investment research industry therefore its results are within Integrity’s radar.
For its 2010 survey, Thomson Reuters collected online votes from 1800 buy-side firms, 225 brokerage firms/research houses, and 640 European large-cap companies. Deloitte gathered, checked and verified all the data.
The Thomson Reuters Extel Survey grants over 400 awards covering equity sectors, economics and strategy, equity derivatives, and emerging markets categories. Below are the winners in categories relevant to the research industry.
Winners (categories relevant to the investment research industry):
|
Award |
2010 Winner |
Placement in 2009 survey |
| Leading Pan-European Brokerage firm for equity and equity-linked research | UBS | 1 |
| Leading Pan-European individual equity analyst | Andrew Wood (Sanford C. Bernstein) | 1 |
| Leading Pan-European sector team (Across all categories) | Credit Suisse, Banks Team | 5 |
| Leading Pan-European brokerage firm for SRI & Sustainability Research | CA Cheuvreux | 3 |
| Leading brokerage firms for European small & mid caps research | CA Cheuvreux | 1 |
| Leading UK small caps analyst | Richard Rose (Oriel Securities) | 18 |
| Leading pan-European economist/strategist | Albert Edwards (Societe Generale) | 2 |
It is worth highlighting that CA Cheuvreux made its way up from third to first place in the SRI & Sustainability Research category. In this move, it surpassed Societe Generale and UBS, first and second places in last year’s survey. This fact can be interpreted (or explained) in a variety of ways, but the topic is so broad that we will dedicate a separate article to analyze it.
CA Cheuvreux also placed first in Small & Mid Caps Research maintaining its leading position from last year. UBS kept the second place in this category.
Other interesting findings of the 2010 Extel Survey include:
– Corporate access is increasingly important to all three sides of the investment community.
– Independent research is growing in value and usage by asset managers, and now almost 3% of total commissions.
The second proposition is in tune with Integrity’s own observations. Asset managers are increasingly finding added value in independent research that provides insights free from the caveats found in the Street’s research.
In Integrity’s view, the Extel survey’s finding on Corporate Access is more complex since our own observations have shown that Corporate Access is valued differently for small caps than for large caps. As we reported earlier this week, our own US Small Cap survey showed that access to small-cap company management is not valued highly by investors, while access to c-level executives of mega-cap companies is a different value proposition. Of course, the Extel survey covered Europe while Integrity’s survey covered US, so it is possible that investment professionals in different regions value this feature differently.
The 2010 Thomson Reuters Extel Survey offers valuable insights into the European investment research industry. It also reveals a variety of areas that need careful screening in order to achieve a comprehensive udnderstanding of the investment research industry.