Ateneo places 1st runner-up in 16th CFA IRC local finals

Students from Ateneo de Manila University placed first runner-up in the 16th Local Finals of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute Research Challenge held virtually last 23 February 2024.

Ateneo’s Research Challenge team, called JEFE Investment Research, is composed of Management Engineering seniors Angela Terese N Yu (Team Captain), Romano Santino Lauro T Puno, Alexa Sofia G Villareal, Applied Mathematics, major in Mathematical Finance senior Jaime Angelo C. Nery, and Communications Technology Management senior Maria Isabela A. Salvador. They were mentored by Alfonso Miguel Sevidal (BS ME ’17) and Beatrice Marie D Chan (BS ME ’23) from the Finance and Accounting Department, and industry mentor Enrique Fausto (BS ME ‘15) from IFE Management Advisers.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge (IRC) is a global investment research 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 Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures (PIZZA). The top six teams in the written report round 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 UBS Securities Philippines Head of Philippine Research Ramon Jose Aguirre, PwC Philippines Deals and Corporate Finance Partner Darwin Saribay, CFA, SGV Partner for Strategy and Transactions Lady March Diam Trinidad, ATRAM Group Head of Equity Strategies Nicanor Yumul, and JP Morgan Securities Philippines Executive Director Jeanette Yutan. 

JEFE Investment Research competed with teams from Far Eastern University Manila, the University of the Philippines-Diliman, the University of San Carlos, and the University of Santo Tomas.

They took home a cash prize of Php 45,000 and will be one of two teams representing CFA Society Philippines in the Asia Pacific Sub-Regionals this March.