Business students tackle research challenge
Mount Royal team faces off against 5 other prairie schools
Albina Khouzina
Contributor
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Mount Royal University’s CFA research challenge team, from left: Stephen Heynen, Tasha Taylor, Artour Khouzine, Thomas Kapiczowski and Jarret Falk. Photo: Albina Khouzine
After 200 hours and eight months of hard work, they were finally ready.
Five teammates from Mount Royal University spent all that time gearing up for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) research challenge.
On March 3, it was time to present their findings on a global agricultural business.
They didn’t win. However, the team said the experience was invaluable to their futures.
“It was a great experience, learned a lot,” said Thomas Kapiczowski, who’s in his final year at the Bissett School of Business.
The CFA research challenge starts with the prairie region and moves on to North America. Winners of the other levels compete a final time to find out the global winner.
The weekend featured six competing prairie universities. The University of Manitoba ended up winning the competition, with the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta placing second and third.
MRU didn’t make the top three, but many instructors came out to support the students. Jim Fischer, one of the chair members of the business school, said he was impressed by their efforts.
“It was six great teams,” Fischer said. “Ours was right in there, this is only our second year too, and we (are proud of) our students and the time they put into it.”
Viterra, the company the team was required to analyze, is a global agri-products and grain distribution company.
They had to write a ten page financial evaluation assessing the companies management and equity, determining where the company is in its growth cycle and giving a buy or sell recommendation.
They evaluated the current price of the stock of $10.69 and predicted a rise to $13.13, with a recombination to buy based on all their research.