The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition that provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. Students work in teams to research and analyse a publicly traded company. Teams write a research report on their assigned company with a buy, sell, or hold recommendation and may be asked to present and defend their analysis to a panel of industry professionals.
The New Zealand competition of the 2021 CFA Institute Research Challenge
On 15 October teams from eight NZ universities competed to represent New Zealand in Asia Pacific regional competition. Kiwi Property Group was the company under scrutiny this year.
Judge, Angus Simpson, CFA, comments; “This is the second time I have judged the Research Challenge and I have been increasingly impressed at the quality of the student’s reports and presentations. Some are such a high standard I forget the students don’t have years of work experience and have only been analysing the company for a couple of months. Those that follow a path into investment banking / funds management will have a bright future.”
First place : University of Auckland
The team from the University of Auckland will represent New Zealand in the regional finals (Asia Pacific). They are; Flynn Davies, Raewyn Leow, Katy Qiu and Michael Smith. Best of luck to you all!
The other universities competing on 15 October were; Lincoln University, Massey University, University of Waikato, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Victoria University of Wellington, University of Otago, University of Canterbury.
A huge thanks to everyone who contributed:
Industry mentors: Roy Cross (Quay Street), Fiona Foster (Movac), Alvin Hu (Todd Corporation), Jeremy Kincaid (UBS) James Li (NZ Super Fund), Murray Scott (Rank Group), Hayden Stricket (Virtus Data Centres), Yvonne Webb (NZ Super Fund)
Judges: Manuel Greenland (Rank Group), Babara Salazar (NZ Super Fund), Angus Simpson (ANZ)
Organisers: Mia Prkusic and Beini Guo
Sponsors: Kaplan Schweser
Above: The winning team from University of Auckland in action, presenting to the judges on zoom
Top row, left to right: Manuel Greenland (judge), Beini Guo (organiser), Flynn Davies (UOA)
Middle row, left to right: Michael Smith (UOA), Barbara Salazar (judge), Katy Qiu (UOA)
Bottom row, left to right: Raewyn Leow (UOA), Angus Simpson (Judge)
List of 2021 participants
| Alisa Innes | AUT |
| Charise Wang | AUT |
| Divyanshu Mathur | AUT |
| Felipe Dos Santos | AUT |
| Sofia Belova | AUT |
| Huiyuan Xie | Lincoln University |
| Joshua Loveday | Lincoln University |
| Ryan Barnes | Lincoln University |
| Shan Jin | Lincoln University |
| Ben Haywood | Massey University |
| James Watson | Massey University |
| Salvatore Reito | Massey University |
| Yingzhao Li | Massey University |
| Flynn Davies | University of Auckland |
| Katy Qiu | University of Auckland |
| Michael Smith | University of Auckland |
| Raewyn Leow | University of Auckland |
| Elizabeth Andre | University of Canterbury |
| Fergus Murray | University of Canterbury |
| Joshua Murison | University of Canterbury |
| Mahtab Mahjor | University of Canterbury |
| Michael Calvert | University of Canterbury |
| Akeira Worthington | University of Otago |
| Alex Rowe | University of Otago |
| Amanda Claire Sim | University of Otago |
| Logan Stadnyk | University of Otago |
| Nathan Hyland | University of Otago |
| Alice Donelley | University of Waikato |
| Haydon Flogdell | University of Waikato |
| Jordan Campbell | University of Waikato |
| Kashika Khanna | University of Waikato |
| Sean Washer | University of Waikato |
| Daniel Winsley | Victoria University of Wellington |
| Rory Macintyre | Victoria University of Wellington |
| Sushil Singh | Victoria University of Wellington |
| Waruna Padmasiri | Victoria University of Wellington |