J’pura Uni triumphs at 11th CFA Sri Lanka Research Challenge
CFA Sri Lanka hosted the CFA Institute Research Challenge in Colombo for the 11th consecutive year recently, at Jaic Hilton. University of Sri Jayewardenepura won the local competition of the CFA Institute Research Challenge 2018 and will advance to the Asia Pacific Regional round in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where they will compete against leading universities from the region in April 2018.
The team from University of Sri Jayewardenepura consists of V.D. Wijemanne (Team Leader), H.P.M.D.V. Jayawardena, R.P. Wickremasinghe and D.S. Vithanage.
The team was supported by lecturer S.D.L. Kongahawatte and mentored by Rasanja Perera, CFA.
The winning team beat nine other teams including the team from University of Kelaniya, who emerged runner-up.
The other participant teams include two teams each from University of Colombo and Royal Institute of Colombo and one team each from University of Moratuwa, Mercury Postgraduate Institute, Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology and University of Wayamba.
CFA Sri Lanka kicked-off the competition on September 8, 2017. During the preliminary local round, 10 teams from Sri Lanka’s leading universities and business schools submitted written research reports based on their analysis of Hatton National Bank PLC, a premier private sector commercial bank in the country.
University of Colombo team 1, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, University of Kelaniya and Mercury Postgraduate Institute competed in the second round of the local research challenge, which involved presenting their research findings to a panel of judges and facing a Q&A session.
Their presentation at the local finals of Sri Lanka Research Challenge was the culmination of months of research, interviews with company management, competitors and clients, investment research and presentation training, including training conducted by Moody’s Analytics Knowledge Services.
“Being involved in the CFA Research Challenge was an opportunity of a life time for us to gain a taste of what it is like to be an equity analyst by profession. The training, mentoring and exposure we got throughout the last few months were priceless and winning the competition was the perfect icing on the cake. We look forward to making our country proud in the upcoming regional and hopefully, global rounds of the competition,” Wijemanne said.