CFA Sri Lanka hosts CFA Institute Research Challenge

• Lankan students to compete for place in Regional Final in Chicago, Illinois, USA

CFA Sri Lanka will host the CFA Institute Research Challenge in Colombo for the ninth 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 6 November. 

During the local round, six teams from Sri Lanka’s leading universities and business schools will compete for a place in the regional final in Chicago, USA, 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 3 July. This year’s participating teams include University of Colombo, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, University of Moratuwa, University of Kelaniya, Royal Institute of Colombo and Business Management School.   

Textured Jersey Lanka PLC was selected as the Subject Company for this year’s competition. Textured Jersey Lanka PLC is engaged in fabric manufacturing and is the leading supplier of weft knitted fabrics to apparel manufacturers. Student participants visited the Textured Jersey’s fabric mill in Seethawaka, where they had the opportunity to observe and understand the entire fabric manufacturing process. The factory visit was followed by a Management Presentation and Q&A session on 14 August, attended by Textured Jersey CEO Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Director Hasitha Premaratne and CFO Salman Nishtar. After the presentation, participants had the opportunity to ask questions from the management team. 

The competition will proceed with the teams submitting a research reports for evaluation by end-September 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 6 November. 

Commenting on the competition, Project Chair and CFA Director Zaff Jeevunjee said, “This competition allows students to experience what real-life work done by an Investment Analyst is like. In addition to exposure to world-class competition, they also get training and mentoring by CFA Charter holders. 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 Textured Jersey for agreeing to be the Subject Company this year. Their willingness to allow participants to visit their factory as well as the time spent by senior management including the CEO, CFO and Director of the Company to present to the students is obviously invaluable.”