Latest update:
Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - 12:45
25 February 2016
A team from the American University is the winner who will represent our country at the finals of CFAResearchChallengein the USA this April The Bulgarian CFA Association held for the first time in Bulgaria the university competition for financial analyses CFA Research Challenge, reported from the association. A team from the American University in Bulgaria is the winner who will represent our country at the finals in the USA. CFA Research Challenge is a university competition held on a global level under the auspices of the CFA Institute – the professional organization of Chartered Financial Analysts, CFA, the members of which are more than 135 thousand people from all over the world. CFA Research Challenge offers students majoring in economy the opportunity to put into practice their knowledge of performing a thorough financial analysis of a public company. Also, the competition requires from the students to present their arguments and to prepare a team presentation of their analysis before a competent jury in order to demonstrate their presentation and oratorical skills. “The financial analysis competition, CFA Research Challenge, gives the students the exclusive opportunity to immerse themselves into real professional atmosphere and to put into practice their knowledge and skills required by future employers from the capital market”, commented Kalin Metodiev, Chairman of the Managing Board of the Bulgarian CFA Association. Under the auspices of the Bulgarian CFA Association, CFA Research Challenge took place in Bulgaria for the first time this year. During the competition in the country,nine teams competed – Faculty of Economics of Sofia University with 2 teams, American University in Bulgaria with 2 teams, Business Academy “D. A. Tsenov” – Svishtov with 2 teams, Higher School of Insurance and Finance, University of Economics – Varna and Varna Free University. Sopharma AD was selected for a public company subject to the financial analysis, considering the reputationof the company based on its accessible and transparent financial information. The competition started with an explanatory presentation at the headquarters of Sopharma AD by Kalin Metodiev and the members of the Managing Board of the Bulgarian CFA Association, Alexander Alexandrov and Veneta Ilieva. During the orientation meeting, the students got the privilege to meet in person and receive valuable professional guidelines by the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the CEO of the pharmaceutical company, Ognian Donev, and by the Director of Investor Relations of the company, Pelagya Vyacheva. According to the global regulation, the local competition took place in two rounds during which the participating students collaborated with prominent “colleagues” from the local financial sector. The teams prepared a written financial analysis of Sopharma AD under the guidance of competent mentors such as Nadya Nedelcheva from “Carol”, Lachezar Dimov and Maria Boichinova from “Expat Capital”, as well as Ivailo Penev from “ELANA Fond Management” and Tatyana Puncheva-Vasileva from “ELANA Trading”. The presented analyses were assessed on the basis of strictly defined criteria and a point-grade system by a team of assessors, CFA charterholders from the Bulgarian National Bank, in the person of Daniela Minkova, Silviya Prokopieva and Atanas Ivanov. In the second round of the competition, the student teams presented their audio-visual presentations before a jury of professionals from the financial sector and members of the Bulgarian CFA Association, consisting of Boyan Ikonomov, CFA, member of the Management Board and CEO of Tokuda Bank, Tatyana Petrova, CFA, senior consultant in EY and Plamen Pavlov, financial consultant. After a complex assessment of all teams in both rounds of the competition, the winner was Team No 1 of the American University in Bulgaria with members Iva Garbakova, Stancho Stanchev and Elena Georgieva and academic advisor, Andrei Gyurov, PhD. The Bulgarian CFA Association sponsors the national winner for representing our country at the finals in Chicago, USA in April, where our students will compete with academic teams from universities from all over the world to determine a regional and a global champion. During the awards ceremony, the students and their academic advisors expressed before the association representatives their satisfaction with the presented opportunity as well as their willingness for annual participation in the future issues of the competition. In his closing statement, Kalin Metodiev assessed the overall performance of the teams as very high and said that according to the Bulgarian CFA Association, all participants are winners with the gained practical experience, cooperation in a working environment with established professionals from the financial sector and direct access to a leading public company, traded on the stock market. http://www.investor.bg