SAF team rounds out top four in Global Investment Research Challenge

By: Kelly Millar

For a second year in a row, five students from the University of Waterloo have progressed to the next round in a province wide finance competition.

Hosted by the Toronto CFA Society, the Global Investment Research Challenge pitted eleven Ontario university teams against each other, challenging them to present a research report on Brookfield Renewable Power Fund; one of the largest power income funds in North America producing electricity exclusively from environmentally friendly and renewable resources.

The competition spans one academic year and consists of analyzing a publicly traded company, mentoring by a professional research analyst, writing a research report, and presenting the results and recommendations to a high profile panel of Toronto industry professionals.

Although the Global Investment Research Challenge is similar in nature to other case competitions, it’s been suggested that the judges are more heavily focused on financial models, comparatives, and forecasting rather than strategic analysis.

“I feel that this is slightly more of a finance-based and quantitative challenge with more tangible and current conclusions,” explains Milan Shah (AFM). “Additionally, the challenge is unique in that the company upon which we are initiating coverage is an income fund which requires a deeper understanding of the business structure.”

Daniel Cheng (Mathematics & Business Double Degree program), Milan Shah (AFM) Robert Tutins (MAcc), Sherina Yang (AFM), and Stephen Yi (Math/CA) have proceeded to the next round in the competition. Tutins attributes the team’s advancement to the help and support given by SAF faculty member Professor Alan Douglas and assigned CFA mentor Mark Knakowski.

“I'm incredibly excited to go onto the next round and represent Waterloo against the other business schools!” says Tutins. “I'm not very nervous yet - just excited and really confident. I tend to get pretty competitive with things like this. I really want to represent the School and our team well and I can't wait to show the judges and other schools what we've done!”

This year, the top four student team finalists are from: University of Waterloo, University of Western, Queen’s University, and Carleton University.

The winning team will be determined on March 3, 2011 and will qualify for the CFA Institute Americas Regional Final of The Global Investment Research Challenge in Omaha, Nebraska, competing against teams from schools across the Americas in April 2011.