The finance team of the School of Business at Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) won the Finnish final of the CFA Global Investment Research Challenge (Global IRC) investment-analysis contest on Monday 22nd November. The team was also presented with the award of the Finnish Association of Business School Graduates (SEFE) for the best written report in the Finnish qualification round.
The LUT team competed with teams from the universities of Tampere and Vaasa for national victory and for a place in the regional final in Madrid in March 2011 involving European, Middle East and African countries. The winning team will go on to the global final in Omaha, USA, on 6–7th April 2011.
This was the second time Global IRC was staged in Finland. The contest aims at stimulating interest in the investment field among future experts, and at refining the analytical skills of those contemplating a career in investment. The Finnish final was part of a worldwide investment-analysis contest for universities, in which groups of between three and five students draw up an investment analysis of a local stock-exchange-quoted company.
The victorious LUT team consisted of Antto Alenius, Topias Kukkasniemi, Lasse Lemberg, Anssi Pakarinen and Atte Rissanen. It was coached by LUT professors of strategic finance Minna Martikainen, Eero Pätäri, post-doctoral researcher Kashif Saleem, associate professor Sheraz Ahmed and, in the capacity of mentor appointed by the contest jury, Hanna Kaskela, portfolio manager, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company.
Six university or higher-education-institution teams took part in the Finnish Global IRC event. The three teams that had produced the best written reports presented the conclusions of their analyses to an expert jury appointed to choose the final winner. Its members were: Ari Korhonen, Managing Director, Aktia Invest; Mika Koskinen, Head of Trading and Capital Markets, SEB Merchant Banking; Matti Kuhakoski, CFA Head of Hedge Fund Investments, Pohjola Asset Management; Petri Kuusisto, Partner, Northern Star Partners, and Timo Ritakallio, Deputy CEO, Investments, Ilmarinen.
The CFA Institute, founded in 1962, is a global non-profit organisation with a membership of over 100,000 investment professionals in 134 countries. It operates worldwide as an investment-industry pioneer, setting the highest possible ethical, educational and professional standards for investment experts. The CFA Institute also administers the Chartered Financial Analyst or CFA study programme targeting investment specialists, as well as the Global Investment Performance or GIPS standards, created to promote the reliable presentation of investment performance.
For further information, contact
Minna Martikainen, tel. +358 40 569 2652; minna.martikainen (at) lut.fi
Kashif Saleem, tel. +358 5 621 7284; kashif.saleem(at)lut.fi