APPENDIX 1: RESEARCH PAPER GUIDELINES


2020/2021 Budding Value Investor Award
The 2020/2021 Budding Value Investor Award consists of two stages:

[1] Preliminary Stage
The Preliminary Stage requires the participants to submit a Research Paper that consists of two parts:

Part 1
Introduced by Benjamin Graham in 1934, value investing is a time-proven investment approach used by some of the most successful investors, including Warren Buffett. The world has changed fundamentally, driven by China’s emergence, technology disruption, the aftermath of the US-led financial crisis and low interest rate. With disruptions of all kinds affecting business models, in your own words, please submit Part 1 of your Research Paper on the following topic:

“What is New Value Investing in the context of the 21st century?”

Part 1 of your Research Paper shall not exceed 1,500 words, excluding charts, tables, references and appendices.

Part 2
Choose a listed company with annual reports available in English or Chinese from the 43 stock markets that Capital Dynamics invests in globally. As Part 2 of your Research Paper, conduct an analysis on the said company. Justify your choice of company with reference to your answer in Part 1. Conclude by recommending a Buy, Hold, or Sell rating on the said company.

Part 2 of your Research Paper shall not exceed 5,000 words, excluding charts, tables, references and appendices.

[2] Final Stage
The Final Stage is a Presentation of Part 2 of participants’ Research Paper. Finalists will be invited to present their research to a panel of prominent judges. Due to the unexpected circumstances, the Final Stage Presentation will be held virtually on 27th March 2021. More detailed information and procedure will disclose to the Finalists in due course.

Research Paper Guidelines
The Research Paper must:

  1. not exceed 1,500 words for Part 1 and 5,000 words for Part 2, excluding charts, tables, references and appendices;
  2. be written in clear, concise and easy-to-understand English, with no serious grammatical and/or vocabulary errors;
  3. not be plagiarised from any source;
  4. be the participants’ original work. Any sourced information should be properly cited using generally accepted citation systems (refer to examples in the Rule 1.2);
  5. be in the following format:
    • Text must be Arial font size 12
    • Single-line spacing with justified text
    • A4 size with 1.5cm margins on the left and right
  6. employ consistent terminology, for example, maintain the use of “RM1 mln” instead of subsequently using “RM1 million”;
  7. include the following details of participants:
    • Full name as per identification card or passport
    • Identification number or passport number
    • University
    • Student ID
    • Faculty, programme and major(s)
    • Year of study
    • Mobile phone number
    • Email address
    • Residential address
Part 2 of the Research Paper must include:
  1. Company information as below:
    • Full Company Name
    • Stock Name
    • Stock Code
    • Stock Market
    • Closing share price on the last market day before submission
  2. Company Background
  3. Business Model
  4. Industry Analysis
  5. inancial Analysis
  6. Valuation
  7. Recommendation and Reasons
  8. Appendices as below:
    • All three (3) Financial Statements (Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement) over 10 years or since inception, whichever is longer.
    • Forecasts/projections with computations
    • Justification for the valuation method used
    • Calculations of key ratios such as liquidity ratios, debt ratios, profitability ratio, DuPont analysis, cash-conversion cycle days and others
    • Assumptions
    • All sources of numerical data

Submission of the Research Paper
Part 1 and Part 2 of the Research Paper must:

  1. be in ONE SINGLE document;
  2. be submitted in BOTH Microsoft Word and PDF versions via email to bvia@icapital.biz with the title “2020/2021 BVIA_Research Paper Submission_[TEAM NAME]”;
  3. be submitted by Sunday, 10th January 2021, 11.59 PM Malaysia time (GMT+8).