Submitted by Gavin Lee (93), Team Coach and Assistant Professor, UP Diliman

The UP CBA team composed of 5th year BS Business Administration & Accountancy (BS BAA) including Xavier alumnus Raymund Siegfrid LIi from Class 2005, and fellow students Pamela Li, Jose Mari Punzalan, Rachelle Denise Sison, and Choerleen Bianca Solema won the Global  Championship at the 2010 Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute “4th Global Investment Research Challenge (GIRC)” held last April 17, 2010 at the Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel & Towers in Hong Kong.

The GIRC is a global inter-school competition wherein teams composed of three (3) to five (5) undergraduate or graduate students from hundreds of universities around the world compete for the CFA GIRC Global Championship. This annual educational initiative is designed to promote best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills and offers students the unique opportunity to learn from leading industry experts. The event spanned one academic year and consisted of analyzing a public company, mentoring by a professional research analyst, writing a research report, and presenting research results and recommendations to a high-profile panel of experts. Marks were awarded to teams on the basis of their investment case, their poise, and their ability to answer the judges’ questions. The team’s final presentations are evaluated by high-profile panels of heads of research, portfolio managers, and chief investment officers from the world’s top finance institutions.

The tournament mechanics require each team to write an Investment Report about a publicly listed company from their home country through primary research supported by a financial model in order to come up with a Buy, Sell, or Hold recommendation. The competition progresses through three challenging levels: National Finals, Regional Finals, and Global Finals.

The UP CBA team won the 2010 Philippine IRC Finals held at the PSE Auditorium at Tektite Tower, Ortigas Center last January 21, 2010 by besting the teams from Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University-Manila, De La Salle University –Dasmarinas, and University of Santo Tomas. The UP CBA team then moved on to the 2010 Asia-Pacific Regional Finals held at the Marriott Hotel in Resort World last March 6, 2010 where it won first place and the right to represent the region at the Global Finals. The team won over 15 other national champions from the Asia-Pacific Region.

The UP CBA team then moved on to the 2010 Global Finals held at the Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel & Towers last April 17, 2010. Four Regional Champions competed in the 2010 Global Finals, with the Philippines emerging as Global Champion for the first time:

1. Asia-Pacific : University of the Philippines – Diliman, College of Business Administration

2. Americas (North and South) : Brigham Young University, Marriott School of Management

3. New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) : Fordham University, School of Business

4. EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) : University of Cape Town (South Africa), School of Management Studies

The UP team reported on Energy Development Corporation (EDC), the world’s second largest fully integrated geothermal energy company.The past Global Champions are: Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) in 2009, Hong Kong Baptist University (Hong Kong) in 2008, and Babson College (Boston, USA) in 2007. The prize for winning the Global Championship is a USD 10,000 grant to the University of the Philippines. More than 90 CFA Institute member societies hosted local competitions for the 2010 Global IRC, with over 425 universities and 2,000 students from many of the world’s top finance schools participating.

To view photos from the 2010 Global Finals, please visit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49121192@N06

http://bit.ly/8YXsGq

For more information about the GIRC, please visit:

http://www.cfainstitute.org/society/challenge/index.html