New Zealand’s best finance students will get to test their academic skills under real-life investment conditions in a competition launched today.
The contest, initiated by online equity ‘information platform’ Shareclarity, will give finance students and academics of four NZ universities the opportunity to use their book-learning in a real stock-valuation exercise.
Hosted by the Victoria University Business & Investment Club, the Shareclarity Company Valuation competition, which features a $2,000 winning prize, is open to students and academics from Victoria University, Auckland University, Waikato University and Canterbury University.
Daniel Kieser, Shareclarity managing director, said as well as unearthing future talent for New Zealand’s investment industry, the competition would give entrants the opportunity to put their analytical skills to work in a real-world setting.
“For many students this might be the first time they value a real NZX- or ASX-listed company,” Kieser said.
He said applicants, who could enter either as individuals or teams, would have to supply an analysis – including a company overview plus a valuation spreadsheet – on one of the 30 NZX companies selected by Shareclarity, or potentially a stock of their own choosing.
“We have been engaging with students and academics for some time, and I’m always amazed at their insights. They look at the market differently and can often spot opportunities and risks well before they arrive,” Kieser said.
Entries close on September 2 with the winner – to be judged by Kieser and Marc Potter, head of Internal Consulting Group NZ – announced on September 9.
Kieser picked up the inaugural ‘emerging leader of the year’ at the May 2016 INFINZ awards.
He said since Shareclarity launched last September it had completed a second round of fund-raising and revamped its website while boosting user numbers to 1,500.
The system, which marries ‘crowd-sourcing’ with traditional stock valuation processes on an open platform, was also poised to launch in Australia, Kieser said.
“We’re in the late stages of our Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) application,” he said. “Once we have our AFSL that will give us access to a potential target market of 1.1 million users – which includes about 650,000 self-managed superannuation funds and a further 450,000 who we label as ‘active investors’.”
Kieser said about half the stocks currently on Shareclarity were ASX-listed.