STUDENTS from the Ateneo de Manila University bested their peers from other universities in the country in the 13th local finals round of the Chartered Financial Analyst-Institute Research Challenge held virtually on February 25, 2021.

ADMU’s “Poseidon Investment Research”, composed of Management Engineering seniors Joella Marie Consunji, Anja-Teresa Sofia Abrogar, Arielle Melissa Ang, Bianca Renee Braza, and Gerrick Spencer Limsiy defeated teams from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, De La Salle University, and the University of Santo Tomas.

They received a cash prize of P100,00.

They were mentored by faculty advisor Alfonso Miguel Sevidal from the Finance and Accounting Department and industry mentor Enrique Faust from IFE Management Advisers.

The team will represent the ADMU and CFA Society Philippines in the Asia Pacific Regionals in March 2021. If they win the regional round, they will compete in the Global Finals on April 22.

“The team’s victory also marks the Ateneo’s seventh consecutive victory in the CFA-IRC local finals and eighth national title overall. The Ateneo was also crowned Asia Pacific Regional Champions three times in 2015, 2016, and 2019 and Global Champions in 2019,” the university said.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a global competition that provides students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis.

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

The top four teams with the highest grades for the written report advanced to the local finals, where they gave a ten-minute presentation to a panel of judges, followed by a ten-minute question-and-answer portion.

The panel of judges included Credit Suisse’s Varun Ahuja, First Metro Securities Head of Research Mark Angeles, Regis Partners Head of Research Giovanni de la Rosa, Caylum Trading Institute President & CEO Edmund Lee, and J.P. Morgan Securities Executive Director Ranjan Sharma.