We are very pleased to announce the winners and runners-up of our first Investment Challenge. Finalists made their presentations to the judging panel on 28th February 2019, and the winner and runnersup were announced at the departmental awards ceremony immediately following. The winner received £200 and the chance to shadow a professional analysts in Tikehau Capital. Congratulations and thanks to all involved!
Winner and Runners Up
First prize: Nicolas Trausch (BSc Economic and Economic History)
The Proposal: "I came across Majestic Wine’s retail store in Shoreditch and was amazed by the variety of wine it offered. The majority of customers seemed regulars and most of them bought more than 10 bottles on average ! I thought it was an interesting business to look at. When I dug deeper into their annual reports, I found that they launched an online wine club called Naked Wines. Club members were growing very fast and member retention has been very high since inception - almost as high as a a music subscription like Spotify. Both the growth story of Naked Wines and Majestic’s unrivalled retail offering looked very compelling. The company seemed under-appreciated due to the negative short term outlook for importing retailers. I saw this as an opportunity to buy a cheap high quality business to hold on to in the very long term."
Runner up: David Douer (BSc Economic History)
The Proposal: "Technological innovation surrounds us on a daily basis, and no more so than artificial intelligence. My presentation delved into the behind-the-scenes processing of who is responsible for creating AI's technological innovations. It turns out that Nvidia, an American technology firm, are the industry leaders and are contributing to expanding the growth of AI via the invention of a powerful graphics processing unit. Essentially, these units make all electronics tick; and for that reason I presented Nvidia as an exciting stock to invest in."
Runners up: Michael Obadiah, Mehir Gonsai (General Course)
"Addus HomeCare is a growth stock within the United States Homecare industry. The Company’s main catalysts include growth opportunities through acquisitions and a strong balance sheet has potential to grow through acquisitions. We constructed an integrated financial model and valued Addus using a free cash flow to equity model."
The Panel of Judges
The shortlisted contestants presented their pitches to the panel of judges drawn from the world of business and finance.
Dr Peter Cirenza (Tikehau Capital, LSE)
Christian Dinesen (Dinesen Associates, Economic History Advisory Board Member)
Simon MacAdam (Capital Economics)
Joachim Liese (Senior Financial Adviser, and Economic History Advisory Board Member.)
Panellist Christian Dinesen commented on the value of the competition for Economic History students. "It was a real pleasure to be one of the judges at the inaugural Economic History investment competition. The investment recommendations submitted by the students were of a very high standard and represented a wide range of industries, investment opportunities and approached adopted by the students. This all made the judging interesting, enjoyable and challenging.
"Both participating in the completion and listening to the presentations are highly relevant for students who consider internships in the financial services where similar completions often are the final challenge."
Alone or in pairs, write a memorandum making a recommendation for investing in a stock, bond, commodity, company, sector, currency, real estate or other financial instrument. Your memorandum should include the following:
(i) The investment recommendation
(ii) An analysis of the historical performance of the investment you propose
(iii)The long term development of the sector
(iv) Prospects for growth with a base case for expected return.
The memorandum can be up to 2,000 words long. It will be judged by a panel of experienced and senior figures in finance and economics. Remember your audience: it should be clear, punchy and compelling, with great visuals.
Submit your memorandum by 2pm on the 25th January 2019 to Tracy Keefe (t.j.keefe@lse.ac.uk). Short-listed entrants will present their analysis to the panel. Results will be announced at a reception on 28th February.
The winner will receive £200 and the opportunity to shadow analysts at Tikehau Capital. The two runners-up will receive book vouchers to the value of £25.