CFA Sri Lanka hosts CFA Institute Research Challenge

CFA Sri Lanka will host the CFA Institute Research Challenge in Colombo for the 10th consecutive year.  CFA Sri Lanka, a representative of CFA Institute – the global association of investment professionals made up of portfolio managers, investment advisors, educators and other financial professionals – will hold the local level final of this global competition on 13 January 2017. 

During the local round, ten teams from Sri Lanka’s leading universities and business schools will compete for a place in the regional final in Bangkok, Thailand, where they will meet other teams from the Asia-Pacific region. The successful team from there will then go on to compete in the Global Final. 

CFA Sri Lanka kicked-off the competition on 19th August 2016.This year’s competition has a record number of ten teams participating in the local challenge. The teams include two teams each from the University of Moratuwa and the University of Sri Jayawardanapura, University of Colombo, University of Kelaniya, Royal Institute of Colombo and Business Management School (BMS), American National College (ANC) and Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT).   

As an added feature to this year’s local challenge, prior to announcing the Subject Company, one member from each team was offered the opportunity to undergo a comprehensive seven day Equity Analyst training programme conducted by Copal Amba, A Moody’s Analytics Company. The training covered all essential aspects of equity research and was conducted by trainers with international training experience.

Sunshine Holdings PLC was selected as the Subject Company for this year’s competition. Sunshine Holdings PLC is a conglomerate listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange, with core area of focus on the Healthcare, Agribusiness and FMCG sectors. The Management Presentation held on 2 September was attended by Sunshine Holdings Director Shyam Sathasivam, Business Analyst Hiran Samarasinghe and Project Manager, Investor Relation Nicole Parakrama. After the presentation, participants had the opportunity to ask questions from the management team. 

The competition will proceed with teams submitting a research report for evaluation by end-November from which four teams will be short listed for the finals. The selected teams will make a final presentation to a panel of judges, comprising of leading industry practitioners, at an event to be held on 13 January 2017.

Commenting on the competition, Project Chair and CFA Director Zaff Jeevunjee, CFA, said: “We are really glad to see that the interest in this competition has increased, with a record number of teams participating in this year’s event. The competition gives students real-life experience of work that an Investment Research Analyst does. Participating students in this year’s competition also got a chance to go through a great Equity Analyst training program prior to the start of the competition, and will continue to be mentored by CFA charter holders throughout the competition. The CFA Institutes wants the participants to be highly conscious of the way in which they participate and conduct their research – professional diligence, abiding to a code of ethics, and being conscious about following the right rules, whether the capital market rules or the competition rules, is very important. We are very grateful to Sunshine Holdings for agreeing to be the subject company this year.”

The CFA Institute Research Challenge offers students the unique opportunity to develop and present an equity research report and compete on a global basis. Students will learn from leading industry experts and their mentors and peers from the world’s top business schools. This annual educational initiative is designed to promote best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills.

The global competition, which runs until April 2017, attracted more than 5,000 students from over 1,000 universities in 70 countries during the 2016 competition year.