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CFA Institute Announces Results of Second Annual Global Investment Research Challenge

 

New York, May 2, 2008 – CFA Institute announced today that a student team representing Hong Kong Baptist University won its second annual Global Investment Research Challenge held here last night at the headquarters of ThomsonReuters, premier global sponsor of the event.

Hong Kong Baptist University competed with teams from Rutgers Business School in New Jersey, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, University of Houston, and University of New Brunswick. Regional competitions were held throughout April in London, Hong Kong, and New York to determine the five teams that competed in the 2008 Global Challenge final. 

All teams participating in the Global Challenge will attend the closing of the NASDAQ today, where the Hong Kong Baptist University team will preside over the closing bell.

Hong Kong Baptist University’s four person team presented the winning report on China Mobile Limited (PDF) (00941.HK). As host of the winning team, Hong Kong Baptist University received $10,000. 

Members of the team are Andy Chau, Amy Lee, Angela Yuen, and Sophia Zhang. 

In an optimistic evening that included five buy ratings, the team’s buy rating of China Mobile Limited proved the most convincing to the judges.

“It was remarkable to see first hand the impressive amount of dedication, poise, and talent the next generation of investment professionals possesses,” said Raymond J. DeAngelo, managing director of the member and society division at CFA Institute, which sponsors this annual education initiative. “I commend all five teams for their outstanding presentations that earned them a bid to the Global Challenge and congratulations to Hong Kong Baptist University for their winning investment research analysis and presentation.”

The Challenge is an educational initiative in which leading industry professionals guide business and finance students on how to research and report on a publicly traded company. This event spanned one academic year, and consisted of analyzing a public company, mentoring by a professional research analyst, writing a research report, and presenting research results and recommendations to a high-profile panel of experts

The judges scored the teams on the basis of their investment case, their poise, and their ability to answer the judges’ questions.  

Each team was sponsored by a CFA Institute member society. The participating societies were CFA Atlantic Canada, CFA Society of Dallas-Fort Worth, The Hong Kong Society of Financial Analysts, CFA Society of Houston, NYSSA, and CFA Spain.

“This has been an invaluable experience for the students,” said Alexander Fung, PhD, the Hong Kong Baptist University team’s faculty advisor. “They approached their analysis from a different angle, and stuck to their guns to defend their recommendation through some vigorous questioning from the judges throughout all levels of this competition: the local Hong Kong level, the Asia-Pacific Regional Challenge, and finally, the Global Challenge.”         

"The Hong Kong Baptist University team put tremendous time and effort in doing their own research, which is what an analyst should do,” said Karl Lung, CFA, president of The Hong Kong Society of Financial Analysts. “This is why they are able to understand the company completely and support their recommendation with data."                  

More than 300 students from 80 universities worldwide participated in local Challenges this year, leading to the regional and global play-offs.

The Investment Research Challenge was introduced in 2002 by the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) – a member society of CFA Institute – as a means to promote best practices in research among the next generation of analysts. Enthusiasm for the event spread, resulting in the introduction of the CFA Institute Global Investment Research Challenge in 2007.

CFA Institute
CFA Institute is the global association for investment professionals.  It administers the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement (CIPM) curriculum and exam programs worldwide; publishes research; conducts professional development programs; and sets voluntary, ethics-based professional and performance-reporting standards for the investment industry. CFA Institute has more than 94,000 members, who include the world’s 81,000 CFA charterholders, in 131 countries and territories, as well as 135 affiliated professional societies in 56 countries and territories. More information may be found at www.cfainstitute.org. (Bloomberg users can find CFA Institute at 497458Z).