Sitting in the offices of investment banking boutique Daniel Stewart Securities (LON:DAN) , Vadim Alexandre presents a bullish case for the prospects for his sector during 2011. As one of the City’s top healthcare analysts, earlier this year his impressive stock-picking record helped catapult the firm to the top of Hemscott’s broker rankings in the sector by number of clients. That feat was all the more impressive given the tortuous time encountered by many London-listed healthcare companies during the economic downturn. Nevertheless, Alexandre points to increasing evidence that investors are once again warming to healthcare and that 2011 could mark a return to more optimistic market conditions.

Montreal-born Alexandre joined Daniel Stewart & Co in January 2007 at a time when the firm was moving from a generalist model of research to a specialist model, with a particular focus on AIM companies. He worked in the pharmaceutical sector, both on the research, marketing and finance sides before moving into industry research. The firm itself acts as a broker or nominated adviser to around 50 clients, the majority of which are AIM companies, with a peppering of Plus and Main Market quoted businesses.

Vadim, what are your views on AIM and the way the market has performed over the course of the last year?

AIM is a very interesting market. It has had a tough time in the downturn but that is no surprise, it was the high risk investor that went first, so when you have a major downturn a flight to quality does not come as a surprise to people, but I think it has actually faired well. A lot of people have spoken negatively about AIM but I think, given the severity of the downturn, it has done quite well and companies have still managed to raise money. A classic example is Reneuron Group (LON:RENE) , which is a company that I cover. We did a fundraising for them in March 2009, at probably the worst time in a very long time to raise money, and we still managed to raise money for them. So AIM is still a very functioning market and now, more than ever, I think it is really bouncing back aggressively.

Were there any surprises or was it just…

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