A GROUP of Management Engineering students from the Ateneo de Manila University won in the 14th Local Finals of the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute Research Challenge.

Project Ithaca — composed of Beatriz Ysabel Reyes, Victoria Therese Banson, Veronica Renee Carlos, Jaime Luciano Sy, and Meagan Chloe Tan — bested other schools in the country to claim the title.

They were mentored by faculty advisor Alfonso Miguel Sevidal from the Finance and Accounting Department and Jose Enrique Fausto of IFE Management Advisers.

The Ateneo team won a cash prize of P100,000.

They will represent the CFA Society Philippines in the Southeast Asia Sub-Regional Finals.

IRC is a global investment research competition that provides students hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis.

For this year’s local IRC, the participants were asked to write an initiation report for the stock of Monde Nissin.

“During the local finals, each of the top six teams gave a ten-minute presentation to a panel of judges, followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer portion,” Ateneo said.

“The panel of judges included First Metro Securities Head of Research Mark Angeles, Philippine National Bank Head of Research Alvin Arogo, Business Sense Financial Advisors Chief Executive Officer Henry Ong, Philippine Stock Exchange Chief Operating Officer Roel Refran, and J.P. Morgan Securities Head of Research Jeanette Yutan,” it added.