The student team from the School of Business, The University of Jordan (UJSB) has won the CFA Institute Research Challenge hosted by the CFA Society Jordan for 2014. The Challenge was held under the patronage of the Amman Stock Exchange and in participation with CFA Institute. The team competed against students from 3 other leading Jordanian universities to produce the best comprehensive valuation report on Arab Potash Company (APOT). APOT has been selected given its status as a leading Jordanian company with world-class reporting and corporate governance standards.
UJ was represented by a team of 5 undergrad students: Dania Jamal Hamdan, Salam Ahmad Abukhadra, Nadeen Farhan Haddad, Hamza Faisal Al Jaradat and Omar Nayef Abu Dhaim. The team was mentored by Abdelrahman Alawwad, Financial Analyst at AB Invest (Al-Arabi Investment Group), along with Dr. Mohammad Tayeh as faculty adviser. The presentation was made on the 6th of March at the Four Seasons Hotel, Amman and was evaluated by a panel of judges comprising leading investment industry experts. The presentation carried a 50% weight towards the final result while the actual submitted report, which was graded by CFA Charterholders, carried the other 50%.
The team of these undergraduate students overcame competition from teams representing 3 other universities in Jordan. The UJ team now advances to the Europe, Middle-East and Africa (EMEA) Regional final on the 1st of April 2014 in Milan where it will compete for a place at the Global Final on the 25th of April 2014 in Singapore. The EMEA, Americas and the Global Final events will be streamed live at http://researchchallenge.org/Pages/LiveStreaming.aspx.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a research competition for which students write an equity research report on a publicly traded company, and present their findings to an expert panel. The teams are judged on their written reports and oral presentations and a winner is selected. Throughout the competition, leading investment professionals volunteer as mentors and judges and teach these students best practices in equity research and corporate analysis.
“Congratulations to the UJ Team for becoming the Jordan champions,” said Jameel Anz, CFA, and President of CFA Jordan. “We are extremely proud of holding this challenge for the third year running in Jordan and feel that we all emerged as winners after this event. We truly wish the UJ team the best of luck in Milan and we urge them to master their presentation strategy and techniques.”
The graders and the panel of experts praised the students’ research potential and gave them their best wishes for the next level and in their future professional pursuits. While sitting over the dinner table after the winning announcement was made, the mentor, Mr. Alawwad, and the Faculty Advisor Dr. Tayeh heartily congratulated the team and also quietly reminded them about the tough task ahead.
About CFA Jordan:
The society was established in 2002 to promote best-in-class ethical and professional standards within Jordan’s investment community as well as raise awareness about the CFA designation. We strive to help our CFA candidates through holding exam review sessions, providing scholarships and other educational events. Increasing the membership base of CFA Jordan to increase its footprint and impact in Jordan remains a priority as well.