Fully 87.6 % of all votes cast in the credit research poll were received from western European countries and 6.4% were cast by north Americans. Some 27.2 % of respondents were resident in the UK, 15.9% in Germany, France (7.8%), Scandinavia (4.9%), Italy (4.6%) and Austria (4.33%). Some 47% of credit investing institutions described themselves as banks or bank affiliates; 23.9% were mutual funds or unit trusts; insurance companies (12.6%); pension funds (8.1%); independent investment advisers (3.9%); brokerage affiliates (2.5%); hedge funds (2%). Readers of the poll results should note that, unfortunately, JP Morgan was omitted from the questionnaire sent out to investors, and therefore does not appear in the poll.
Merrill Lynch topped the overall credit strategy section thanks to banks and mutual funds/unit trusts in the UK (20.9% of those voted for Merrill) and with German mutual funds (9.7% of which voted for Merrill) and banks (8.4%). The firm’s nomination as the best high yield team was due to impressively broad support from virtually all categories of institutional investors in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium and Scandinavia. This enabled Merrill to beat CSFB – also well-supported – to first place.