HONG KONG, 11th March, 2013 – TIM Group today reported results of the TIM Ideas Top Performer Awards 2013 for Asia (excluding Japan), Japan and Australia, identifying the best institutional equity salespeople and their brokerage firms in these regions.

The Number Ones

The complete rankings can be found on the tables accompanying this news release.

TIM Ideas Top Performer Awards, now in its second year, is the only quantitative ranking of its kind.  It is based on the alpha, or outperformance versus relative indexes, of stock trading ideas authored by equity salespeople and sent to their money manager clients via the regulatory compliant TIM Ideas platform.  Trade ideas are specific, actionable recommendations, typically based on in-house sell-side research combined with an understanding of market dynamics and timing by the salesperson.

The awards demonstrate consistent outperformance despite last year’s choppy market.  “2012 was another challenging year for investors, given the many macro events that impacted the markets.  However, our data shows that a number of quality salespeople and their firms dramatically outperformed their benchmarks and peers,” said Colin Berthoud, Co-founder of TIM Group.

For the 2013 awards, TIM Group analysed the almost one million long and short equity trading ideas, developed by more than 4,000 equity sales people at more than 300 brokerage firms around the world, for more than 350 clients.  This is the first year TIM Group ranked performance in Asia (ex-Japan), Japan and Australia.  TIM Group also issued news releases today announcing the best institutional equity sales people and their brokerage firms in UK/Europe and in North America.

Quantitative Summary (average annualised alpha)

Awards Significance

Dominic Vail, Deputy Global Head of Equities Distribution for UBS, commented, “This is an excellent result and demonstrates the geographical breadth of our equities business. The result is testament to our people and the strong relationship between sales and research and the continued drive to add value to our clients’ investment process.”

Mr. Berthoud explained that the data generated by the awards demonstrate:

• Alpha:  How professionals in Asia (excluding Japan), Japan and Australia who understand stocks and markets can generate a significant amount of alpha at a time when correlation is considered to be very high.
• Equity Sales:  The changing role equity salespeople are playing at institutional brokerage firms today, providing value added services that help their clients.
• Compliance:  How technology can play a key role in both protecting the communication of intellectual property in a regulatory compliant manner.

“While research analysts may get the lion’s share of industry attention, equity salespeople increasingly are the critical link in generating value added commissions by applying their firm’s services and informational resources to the unique style of each institutional client,” Mr. Berthoud said.

Methodology

• 2013 results were based on the alpha generating performance of almost one million long and short equity trading ideas sent to clients via the TIM Ideas platform in 2012.
• Performance was measured by the average return per idea, from the time it was initiated to the time it was closed, versus the performance of the relevant regional or sector benchmarks for that same period.
• Rankings were weighted by consistency of performance and number of ideas generated by each salesperson.
• Regional award benchmarks were S&P 500 for North America, STOXX 600 for Europe, MSCI AC for Asia (ex Japan), TOPIX for Japan and ASX300 for Australia.
• In order to qualify, an equity salesperson must have sent at least five trade ideas in each quarter of 2012. ETFs and index ideas were excluded.
• For the firm level awards, there must have been at least three qualifying authors at the firm to be eligible.
• Authors need to have had a positive average relative return in order to win an award.

Top Brokerage Firms in Asia (ex Japan) – Average Annualised Alpha of 19.4% (based on average outperformance per idea of 1.8%)

Top Equity Salespeople in Asia (ex Japan) – Average Annualised Alpha of 42.7% (based on average outperformance per idea of 3.4%)

The top-ranked salesperson Raghav Kapoor of Religare Capital Markets had an annualised outperformance of 43.3% above the market, based on an average outperformance per idea of 6.1%

Brokerage Firms in Japan – Average Annualised Alpha of 26.9% (based on average  outperformance per idea of 1.4%)

Top Equity Salespeople in Japan – Average Annualised Alpha of 49.0% (based on average outperformance per idea of 3.6%)

The top-ranked salesperson Gareth Lewis of CLSA had an annualised outperformance of 112.7% above the market, based on an average outperformance per idea of 9.7%.

Brokerage Firms in Australia and New Zealand – Average Annualised Alpha of 13.1% (based on average  outperformance per idea of 1.1%)

Top Equity Salespeople in Australia and New Zealand – Average Annualised Alpha of 30.2% (based on average outperformance per idea of 2.1%)

The top-ranked salesperson Adam Woods of CLSA had an annualised outperformance of 50.5% above the market, based on an average outperformance per idea of 5.2%.

About TIM Group

TIM Group (www.timgroup.com) provides alpha generating information technology, consulting and services to the financial services industry. The company’s focus is on helping buy and sell-side firms and administrators maximize their intellectual property to generate more revenue. TIM Group is employee owned with outside venture capital investors that include Commonwealth Capital Ventures of Boston, GrandBanks Capital of Boston, and JLA Ventures of Toronto.

Contacts

Natalie Hall, Marketing Manager, TIM Group, at +44 (0) 20 7826 4308 or natalie.hall@timgroup.com

Michael Shallo, Anreder & Co., at +1 (212) 532 3232 or michael.shallo@anreder.com