ICU BECAME THE MAIN PARTNER OF CFA INSTITUTE RESEARCH CHALLENGE IN UKRAINE

The CFA Institute’s 12th annual Research Challenge international competition has begun in Ukraine. As part of this challenge, students of economic specialties compete in investment analysis and decision-making. For the fifth year in a row, the ICU Group has been the main partner of this prestigious global educational initiative in Ukraine.

Every year, students from 91 countries take part in the CFA Institute Research Challenge. Teams of participants under the mentorship of experienced financiers master the skills of financial analysis of companies, present their expert opinions to the jury, and give recommendations for making investment decisions.

This year, more than 80 students representing teams from 18 Ukrainian universities are taking part in the local competitions. The final will take place in February 2022, after which the winners will compete with teams from the countries of the CEE region (Central and Eastern Europe) for the right to reach the final of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region.

Zakhar Deriuga, ICU Investment Manager, in his opening speech for the Institute Research Challenge in 2021, advised participants to devote more time to professional self-development.

“Invest as much time as possible in learning. You can be super smart or study at the top universities in the world, but the advantage will be on the side of those who regularly spend more time and effort on their development, not just study at a prestigious educational institution and devote only 1% of their time to self-development,” he emphasized.

The goal of the CFA Institute Research Challenge in Ukraine is to improve the skills of graduates of Ukrainian universities, providing them with the opportunity to gain practical experience in analytical work in the field of finance.

The ICU Group has financially supported programs for the development of economic education in Ukraine since inception. As an example, this year, ICU allocated $1 million for the development of the Kyiv School of Economics.

About ICU

ICU Group is an independent multi-strategy asset management, private equity, and investment firm that specialises in the emerging, and frontier markets worldwide. The Group also has a portfolio of venture capital and fintech investments through its venture capital arm, ICU Ventures.

ICU currently manages $500m in assets. ICU aims to provide its clients with superior risk-adjusted returns across a number of asset classes with investment decisions supported by robust macroeconomic and sectoral analyses from an in-house team of research economists.