Tuesday 5 October 2021 8:50am
Quant Consulting: Max Symon, Luka Didham, Gabriel Pintacasi (back, left to right) Henry Tran (front).
University of Otago Business students won this year’s Forsyth Barr Stock Pitch competition as they pitched the best ‘buy’ recommendation of an NZX listed company to a panel of judges.
The winning team, Quant Consulting, was made up of Luka Didham, Henry Tran, Max Symon and Gabriel Pintacasi, who pitched the company EBOS Group LTD and were elated about taking first place.
“The standard was high, even with the challenges COVID-19 and lockdown brought. I look forward to hopefully working with or alongside you as graduates in the future.”
“We were stoked for the win; the company we chose did a lot of the heavy lifting and so we did our best to present this,” Mr Pintacasi says.
The competition involved six teams researching and presenting a ‘buy’ recommendation of an NZX listed company to a judging panel of industry professionals and faculty members.
A prize giving was held afterwards, where the winners were awarded $200 and the runners-up $100.
The winners said they planned to invest their prize money into the company they pitched as well as using some for a team celebration.
The Commerce Students Association (COMSA) hosted the event with executive Cameron Cunningham facilitating its activities.
Cunningham commented on the high calibre of presentations delivered by the six teams despite having to move the event online as a result of lockdown.
Duncan Croudis, an Investment Advisor at Forsyth Barr and one of the judges, was equally impressed with the students’ work and congratulated them in a closing statement.
“Thanks to all the teams that entered and for the time, effort and teamwork they put into presenting here today,” Mr Croudis says.
“The standard was high, even with the challenges COVID-19 and lockdown brought. I look forward to hopefully working with or alongside you as graduates in the future.”
Other judges included Dr Olena Onishchenko, from the school’s Department of Accountancy and Finance, Sam Gouverneur an Investment Banking Summer Analyst at Craig’s Investment Partners, and Christine Smith-Han, a Portfolio Analyst at Forsyth Barr.