Contest to sharpen decision-making skills

To evaluate undergraduate students' ability to crunch numbers in the most analytical way possible, BUP Finance Society-- one of the most prominent clubs of Bangladesh University of Professionals-- brings ‘MetLife presents Capitalizer 2021,’ an inter-university investment strategy competition designed to strengthen the decision-making skills through challenging real life investment scenarios.

Capitalizer is one of the flagship events organised by BUP Finance Society where participants are required to analyse different investment options and pick the ones they deem to be the best. The competition, consisting of three intriguing rounds, is designed in a way which has never been explored before. It will evaluate the skills of participants by striking a fine chord between quantitative analysis and qualitative reasoning.

Students nationwide must show their mettle in capital budgeting for the given business plans, illustrate plans to potential investors and start the venture while strategising to issue Initial Public Offering (IPO) to ensure long-term financial viability to the start-ups in successive rounds where corporate financial officials will judge the feasibility of their propositions. Thus students will know how fundraising looks like. The teams must brace themselves with strategies to circumvent the unique cases for recognition. Unlike the previous two years, it is going to be held online with the global pandemic caused by COVID 19 forcing the format to deviate.

Registration will end on January 27. In coherence to the event timeline, two workshops will be organised to gear up the participants with fundamental knowledge. The first and  second rounds will take place from January  31 to February 10. With the top six teams, the final round will start from February 14. In presence of the chief guest, judges, sponsors and partners, university authority and club members, the names of the top three teams will be announced on the grand finale of Capitalizer 2021, which is scheduled for February 19. Top three winning teams will earn a total prize money of Tk 200,000.

"Participating and winning Capitalizer 2019 by BUPFS was nothing short of exhilarating. The format of the competition being that of delivering a pitch to potential investors to win them over rather than just a presentation solving an issue in each round really adds an extra dimension to the experience," said Sharif, Hossain & Noor Inc. from the champion team of the previous edition.

Abdullah Hill Nahian, president of BUPFS said, "The purpose of Capitalizer is to develop the cognition and rationale of the participants by making them analyse, evaluate and devise real world investment strategies. This time, Capitalizer is taking place online unlike its previous editions keeping the current status of the world in mind. So, it is a bit challenging for us and the participants. But at the end of the day, we want to provide the best possible experience so that the purpose of Capitalizer can be uplifted among the undergraduate students."

BUP Finance Society invites to team up with three to four members and register for this ultimate battle of keen minds to ‘Seal the Deal!’ For further details, readers may visit facebook.com/BUPFS.

The writer is currently studying Economics at BUP and is also an executive member of BUP Finance Society. He can be reached at [email protected]