Amba, ICASL successfully conclude workshop on financial valuation

Amba Research, together with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, is pleased to announce the successful completion of the Valuation Boot Camp held on 12 and 13 February.

The training programme is part of many initiatives that Amba Research has rolled out in developing and enhancing capital market capacity in Sri Lanka by leveraging on its internal competency in training, having trained over 700 analysts in the last eight years.

The comprehensive two-day programme was designed to cover the best practices in discounted cash flow-based and relative valuation techniques for equity securities.

Modules covered included adjusting valuation multiples for relative differences in risk and growth expectations, guidance on identifying appropriate peers, adjusting enterprise value for non-operating assets, and case studies on setting a target price and constructing a discounted cash flow. A key differentiator in this programme was the multiple case studies on valuing three Sri Lankan IPOs.

The programme was delivered by Amba’s senior panel consisting of Senior VP, Global Head of Projects and Transitions, Chanakya Dissanayake, CFA; VP, Head of Knowledge Management, Aruna Perera, CFA; VP, Head of Training and Development, Aidha Ahamat, Senior AVP, Training and Development, Sarah Yusuf and, Deshal Pandithage, and Senior AVP Asanka Herath.

There was high demand for the programme and the number of participants was increased to accommodate 32 instead of the initial target of 25. Participants consisted of financial professionals and equity valuation practitioners, including Nishan Fernando, Past President ICASL and CFO Odel Plc, Arjuna Herath, Council Member ICASL and Partner Ernst & Young and Naayila Marrikar, Partner, BR De Silva and Company.

The programme was well received by the participants who represented the high-end corporate sector, and their positive feedback indicated they found the two-day programme highly useful,  interesting, and very informative.

Manager Corporate Planning – Dialog Telecom, Pubudu Dissanayake emphasized that the training was an excellent programme which touched in detail on the art of valuation, which was an imperative subject in today’s corporate world.

Vasudhe Jayalath, Assistant Manager – Corporate Finance of Hemas Holidays was of the view that the ICASL-Amba Valuation Boot Camp was a comprehensive programme which covered the most popular valuation methods highlighting all the basic and vital aspects of a valid valuation.

“The training programme provided a detailed insight into valuation techniques,” Financial Analyst at Capital Alliance, Roshendri Perera said. She also appreciated the effort made by ICASL and Amba for holding such an insightful programme.

Chathuranga Amarasuriya of MAS Linea Aqua Pvt. Ltd. said: “Amba trainers were excellent in delivering course content. Above expectations. Keep this kind of programme going on.”

Participants at the programme represented some high-end organisations of the likes of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Capital Alliance, Guardian Fund Management, PWC, KPMG, HNB Securities, Nithya Partners, Ernst & Young, Hayleys, Hemas and Amana Takaful.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka embarked on this initiative together with Amba in its continuing effort to keep the country’s corporate sector abreast of changing global patterns and trends, ensuring that Sri Lanka is on an equal platform with its global peers.

ICASL President Sujeewa Mudalige said: “In view of the high economic growth and the exceptional performance of our capital market, this workshop marks yet another timely initiative towards educating the professionals and business fraternity on a very timely topic. This new joint initiative with Amba Research also marks a very important milestone of the ICASL Business School and has brought us closer to our aim towards fostering the human capital of the country by harnessing knowledge and world class competencies.”

Chairman of the ICASL Business School Yohan Perera underscored the importance to keep ICASL members informed and educated on the current trends by holding such training programmes.

He also noted that with Sri Lanka achieving peace, business valuation is seen as a key concept for the country’s long term economic development.

“ICASL always strives to improve the CPD aspect of our members and such trainings are imperative to achieve such targets. We embarked on this programme with AMBA because they are the specialists in this field,” Perera added.

He also noted that the primary reason for holding such a training programme was following continuous requests by the corporate sector to conduct such relevant training programmes in the country.

Amba’s Country Head Kemal de Soysa said: “We have the benefit of working with top firms in the banking and asset management industry. Over the past seven years, we have gained a wealth of knowledge which our knowledge management team systematically records and shares with our global pool 575+ analysts.

We are glad to have been able to share our knowledge with other finance professionals in Sri Lanka.”

Amba’s Global Head of Knowledge Management Aruna Perera, CFA said: “The boot camp was conducted with the view of adding value to the local financial markets. We are encouraged by the positive response we received. Out team of trainers is always willing to take their capital markets knowledge to finance professionals in the country and we look forward to many more such opportunities in the future.”