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Friday Sep 20, 2024
Friday, 28 February 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
CFA Sri Lanka hosted the CFA Institute Research Challenge in Colombo for the 13th consecutive year on 6 February at Hilton Colombo Residences. University of Sri Jayewardenepura emerged champions at the local leg of the CFAI Research Challenge 2019/20 and will advance to the Asia Pacific Regional round.
The winning team from University of Sri Jayewardenepura consists of Ruwangi Mahanamahewa (Team Leader), Yaswin Kumar, Didula Silva, Thiran Ranasinghe and Kovida Gunawardana. The team was supported by University of Sri Jayewardenepura lecturer Piumi Abeyrathne and mentored CFA Charterholder Ananya Udeshi.
This year’s local Research Challenge finals, which had Ceylon Cold Stores PLC (CCS) as the subject company, featured three other universities: University of Colombo, University of Wayamba, and University of Peradeniya. University of Colombo emerged runners-up at the finals.
The team from University of Sri Jayewardenepura will compete with 23 other local Research Challenge winners for the title of Asia Pacific Regional Champion on 18-19 March. The Asia Pacific Regional champion will advance to the Global Final in New York to compete against the winning teams from the EMEA and Americas regions. This year’s CFAI Research Challenge brings together over 6,000 students representing, 1,000 universities from 85 countries.
The CFAI Research Challenge is an annual global competition that provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. Students work in teams to carry out an initiation of coverage (equity research report) on a publicly traded company with the aim of arriving at an investment recommendation to buy, sell or hold the company’s stock. For this year’s Research Challenge students from Sri Lanka were assigned Ceylon Cold Stores PLC, a manufacturer of beverages and frozen confectionery selling its products under the Elephant House (EH) brand. Teams that progress to local, regional and global finals must present and defend their analysis to a panel of industry professionals.
This year’s competition began in September 2019 with a field of 10 teams representing University of Sri Jayewardenepura, University of Colombo, University of Wayamba, University of Peradeniya, University of Uva Wellassa, and University of Kelaniya. At the kickoff in September, each university was assigned an industry mentor from a pool of CFA Sri Lanka Charterholders. While the students worked on their equity research report, CFA Sri Lanka and Acuity Knowledge Partners armed them with necessary skills and best practices.
During the preliminary local round, the participant teams submitted written research reports based on their analysis of Ceylon Cold Stores PLC, which was then graded by a group of CFA Sri Lanka volunteers. The four highest scoring teams advanced to the presentation round of the local Research Challenge.
During the presentation round, each team presented their research findings to a panel of judges for 10 minutes and faced a 10-minute Q&A session. The presentations were the culmination of months of research; interviews with Ceylon Cold Stores PLC management, competitors, and clients; investment research and presentation training.
The combined scores of the research report and presentation determine the winner. University of Sri Jayewardenepura emerged champions while University of Colombo clinched the runners-up title.
The five students from the winning team, along with their industry and university mentors will take part in the CFAI Research Challenge Asia Pacific regional finals in March.
The team leader of University of Sri Jayewardenepura Ruwangi Mahanamahewa, stated that the CFA Research Challenge was the perfect platform for them to enter the industry with a practical exposure and that the training, mentoring, and the experience that they got in the last few months is invaluable. She further stated that winning the local finals is great but it’s not always about winning; it is about the experience and learning new things. They are looking forward to making Sri Lanka proud in the upcoming regionals and hopefully the global round of the competition.
The team’s mentor Ananya Udeshi added in saying that it was a wonderful experience to be a part of the CFA Research Challenge and to mentor an extremely talented group of students at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. She stated that it was especially pleasing to emerge victorious considering the truly remarkable work done by all participating universities and that the team is extremely grateful for the support extended. Ananya also added that they are looking forward to representing Sri Lanka at the regional finals.
