The College of Business Administration team at Kuwait University won first place for the second time in a row in the competition for trading assets in accordance with the standards of environmental, social and corporate governance practices (The ESG Trading Initiative) for investment portfolios and international trade in the Middle East for the year 2023.
This victory came in the second edition of the competition in the region, sponsored by HSBC Bank and the prestigious Rotman School of Management. The team consisted of students: Ahmed Hassan, Farah Freij, Ahmed Mandani, and Arkan Abdul Hafeez, under the supervision of Dr. Khaled Walid Al-Sabah, Assistant Professor in the Finance Department and Director of the Financial Trading Center at the College. After competing with more than 15 teams; Cairo University ranked second and Al Qasimia University ranked third.
The competition started in February. Since then, the teams have worked on their investment portfolio with the aim of obtaining high returns, taking into account the ranking of assets in terms of ESG; which increased the difficulty of the team’s mission. After completing the investment period, the director of the Trading Center at the University of Toronto - Rotman College visited the college to explain the team’s strategy and evaluate it as it was one of the teams that performed best after completing the investment competition. The team participated in three trading competitions, each competition related to a specific field such as: commodities, liquidity, and ESG, and after collecting points on 8/17/2023, the Kuwait University team was announced as the winner of first place in the liquidity case and in the field of ESG and second place in commodities case, receiving prizes worth $11,000.
On this occasion, the team supervisor, Dr. Khaled Al-Sabah said that this competition provides the opportunity for distinguished students to apply their skills and academic achievements in a new field related to environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) practices, and emphasizes their high level of competitiveness through their competence and good qualifications to join the labor market.
He also expressed his happiness with this honorable achievement of the students through their victory in competing with teams from several universities in the Middle East, and their completion of the successes of the Finance Department and the College of Business Administration, wishing them all the success in their professional lives in the future.
In turn, the head of the Finance and Financial Institutions Department and its faculty praised the members of the winning team and their high performance and their efforts over the past months that culminated in this victory, which calls for happiness, pride and honor, hoping that this achievement will be an incentive for them to continue their brilliance in their academic and professional lives.