A team from Singapore Management University (SMU) has emerged as the winner of the NUS-SGX Stock Pitch Competition finals held last night at the Singapore Exchange (SGX) auditorium.
A record 110 teams from SMU, Nanyang Technological University, the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore Institute of Technology and University of Queensland participated in the fifth instalment of the competition, 30% more than in the previous year.
The annual tertiary-level competition provides a platform for students to showcase equity research skills and have their stock pitch ideas critiqued and validated by a panel of judges, comprising equity research analysts, finance professionals and academics.
Details of the winner and the runners-up are as follow:
Winner: SMU team of four Accountancy and Business undergraduates who made a pitch on Sunningdale Tech
First runner-up: NUS team of four Business undergraduates who picked Thai Beverage
Second runner-up: Cross-Uni team of one NUS Economics undergraduate and three SMU Accountancy and Business undergraduates who pitched for ST Engineering
The judges included Th’ng Beng Hooi, Managing Director of AB Maximus; Justin Ong, credit research analyst at Barclays; Aditya Srinath, Executive Director of Equity Research at J.P. Morgan and Professor Lee Hon Sing, Senior Lecturer at NUS Business School.
Just as in the previous year, participants were given five days to submit a 10-page research report setting out a “buy/sell/hold” recommendation on a single stock over a one-year investment time horizon. Based on the report submission, eight finalist teams were selected, and given just 48 hours to prepare the final presentation. This is to replicate the hectic schedule and dynamic environment within which investment analysts and asset managers operate.
The judging criteria included the quality of analysis, presentation delivery and responses during the question and answer session.
Lynn Gaspar, Senior Vice President for Client Development & Relationship, SGX, said, “The NUS-SGX Stock Pitch competition is an exciting opportunity for students to apply their equity research skills and financial knowledge to real-world cases and to gain insight into how the industry works. The increase in the number of teams participating this year is an indicator of the growing interest in investment and the capital markets. We look forward to supporting the student community as well as other budding investors in future through our programmes at SGX Academy.”
