CFA Society Toronto said Thursday that the University of Waterloo has won the local level of the CFA Institute Research Challenge for the second consecutive year.
The winning team — Arsalan Hashmani, Donna Heng, Prasanth Pahirathan, Anqi Wang, Ian Weng and faculty advisor Craig Geoffrey, CFA, Professor of finance and business at University of Waterloo — was determined based on the best combined score for the written equity research report and their presentation before a panel of judges in Toronto. The team’s industry mentor is Cosmos Chiu.
The Waterloo, Ont. team now advances to the Americas Regional Final, to be held in Toronto, on March 21. The Americas Regional winner will advance to the global final in London, England, in April.
Honourable mention goes to Waterloo, Ont.-based Wilfrid Laurier University who placed second in the local finals.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a unique educational competition for students that allows participants to assume the role of investment research analysts. The annual competition offers participants the opportunity to develop and present an equity research report on a locally relevant company and compete on a global basis with peers from top business schools. Each team works with a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) charterholder who mentors the team during the research process and reviews and critiques its report. This year, more than 3,500 students and 650 universities in more than 55 countries will participate in local Challenge events, culminating in a global final in London.
This year teams from around Ontario presented their research and analysis of the subject company, Canadian dollar store operator Dollarama (TSX:DOL).