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CFA Research challenge

When financial information becomes an opportunity for futures analysts.

The Bulgarian CFA Association held for the first time in Bulgaria the university competition for financial analyses the CFA Research Challenge.

Next generation challenge

Every year the professional organization of Chartered Financial Analysts, CFA, gives the opportunity to many students to take part in a university competition, CFA Research Challenge, testing their skills with an intensive training in financial analysis. This global competition each year attracts more than 135 thousand people from all over the world. This year the Bulgarian CFA Association held for the first time in Bulgaria the university competition for financial analyses CFA Research Challenge.

Making the difference

“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”.

Kalin Metodiev, Chairman of the Managing Board of the Bulgarian CFA Association.

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CFA Research Challenge is the right opportunity for students to put into practice their academic knowledge.

They are required to show their arguments and to prepare a team presentation of their analysis in front of a competent jury in order to demonstrate their research and oratorical skills.CFA Research Challenge is the right opportunity for students to put into practice their academic knowledge. They are required to show their arguments and to prepare a team presentation of their analysis in front of a competent jury in order to demonstrate their research and oratorical skills.

Sopharma AD has been selected among several other companies as a good example of transparent and accessible financial information. A reputation well representing our company culture.

Competition step by step

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 this phase, 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, Pelagia Viatcheva.

Students, with colleagues from the local financial sector, 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 Fund Management” and Tatyana Puncheva-Vasileva from “ELANA Trading”. The analyses were assessed on the basis of strictly defined criteria and a point-grade system by CFA charterholders from the Bulgarian National Bank, in the person of Daniela Minkova, Silviya Prokopieva and Atanas Ivanov.

The student teams illustrated 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.

…and the winner is…

After a complex assessment of all teams 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.

Final destination: Chicago!

The Bulgarian CFA Association sponsored the national winners for representing our country at the finals in Chicago, USA, in April 2016. Here our students competed with academic teams from universities from all over the world to determine a regional and a global champion. See you soon! 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. Thanks to this experience, our “future analysts” gained practical knowledge, cooperated with established professionals from the financial sector and had direct access to a leading public company, traded on the stock market.