The Hang Seng x Value Partners University Elite ESG Challenge Is Successfully Concluded (May 10, 2023)
The ESG Challenge celebration dinner is held at the Hang Seng Bank office on May 10. Over 40 students and professionals attended the celebration dinner. Rosita Lee, CEO of Hang Seng Investment Management and Prof. Louis Cheng share their thoughts with the participants, which included many senior executives supporting the Challenge. The celebration dinner marks the end of the ESG Challenge. We thank all our sponsors, judges and participants for joining the Hang Seng x Value Partners University Elite ESG Challenge.
The Winners of the Hang Seng x Value Partners University Elite ESG Challenge 2023 is Born!
The 7-month long University ESG Challenge 2023 has come to successful completion on 25th March when the Final-8 teams from HKUST, HKU, CUHK, PolyU, CityU, and HSUHK made their final presentations at the Value Partners Headquarters in Central. The Final-8 demonstrated their understanding of ESG, which gained from the competition, and competed for the championship. Each team consisted of three university students studying in Hong Kong. All teams were from single universities, except for one mixed university team. Their majors are Finance, Accounting, Politics and Public Administration, Corporate Governance, etc.
In March, representatives from Big 4 coached the Final-8 students in analysing ESG reports. Later, the Final-8 submitted a 20-min video and report to assess the ESG performance of two Hong Kong companies. Their works were evaluated in detail by the judges before the competition. Therefore, the day of the competition was mainly a Q&A session which was the last opportunity for the teams to strive for better performances.
The seven-member judging panel was chaired by Professor Louis Cheng of HSUHK. The representative of Hang Seng Bank was Ms. Rosita Lee, Director and Chief Executive Officer, Hang Seng Investment Management Limited. The representative of Value Partners was. Mr. Vincent Ching, Head of Intermediaries, Asia Pacific, Value Partners. The remaining judges were the partners of Big 4.
The Final-8 teams performed very well, fully demonstrating their understanding of ESG. After a fierce competition, the champion is born.
The mixed team of HSUHK, HKUST and HKU won the championship; HKUST won the first runner-up; CUHK won the third runner-up. In addition to internships and job opportunities at Hang Seng Bank, Value Partners and Big 4, the top three winners received HK$30,000, HK$15,000 and HK$9000. The teams that won merit awards also received HK$3000. The winner stood out from 47 teams that truly deserved it.
The organiser hoped all participating students became ESG elites through ESG training in this Challenge. So, all 37 teams who completed the competition could contribute to Hong Kong’s environmental and social responsibility work, regardless of whether they won a prize.
Official Launch of Second Round (Jan 2023)
Jan 16 marked the start of second round of ESG challenge. Thank you Hang Seng Bank for providing us this wonderful venue to conduct the official launch. We are very honoured to invite representatives from Big 4 to connect with Final-8 students and coach them on analysing ESG reports, especially on the environmental and social pillars.
After the coaching sessions, students will be given one-month to conduct analysis on the sustainability performance of 1 large and 1 medium cap firms, and film a 20-mins video explaining why these firms receive their respective i-score by evaluating their ESG report. We will organize the final physical presentation, tentatively in Apr 2023, for students to recapture their findings and conduct the Q & A session with professionals.
We will be announcing the details of the final physical presentation in the next few weeks. Thank you everyone for supporting and joining our ESG Challenge.
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Opening Forum | 16 Jan, 2023 |
| 2 coaching sessions (Big 4 with Final-8 students) | 1-20 Feb, 2023 |
| Case analysis | 21 Feb – 20 Mar, 2023 |
| Physical presentation | April 2023 |
The Final-8 is Born! (Dec 2022)
After a sequence of intensive ESG trainings including workshops, online training, and trading simulation, the Final-8 is officially born! They are, in the sequence of ID:
| UST(S)005 | UST(S)012 | UST(S)013 | HSU(M)005 |
| HSU(S)008 | City(S)003 | CUHK(S)007 | UST(S)018 |
Congratulations to the Final-8!
Even if you are not in the Final 8, you can still join our internship bidding as long as you have completed our round 1 ESG Challenge (i.e. completed both online ESG training and the trading simulation.) We will be announcing the details of internship bidding in the next few days.
We thank everyone for joining and supporting our ESG Challenge, we hope you had a fruitful ESG learning journey. Merry Christmas.
Trading Simulation (Nov 2022)
This ESG trading simulation helped candidates gain their first practical insight into different roles in the finance industry. Performance metrics are automatically created for both investment banks sales and trading, and asset management, helping guide candidates to what path in finance may be most suitable for them. Furthermore, the session helped participants gain a practical understanding of how ESG news impacts asset prices. 37 teams attended the trading simulation.
Unlike most investment games which depend on total profit generation as the single measure to determine winners, the simulation evaluation mechanism captured trading and behavioral statistics during the simulation competition. The platform provides 10 performance metrics (6 for sell side and 4 for buy side) in order to determine the winners of the simulation.
University Elite ESG Challenge 2023 Launch Forum (Oct 2022)
A total of 47 teams of students from nine universities in Hong Kong is expected to join this Launch Forum. Mr. Joseph Chan, Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Ms. Rosita Lee, Director and CEO of Hang Seng Investment Management, Ms. June Wong, CEO of Value Partners, and many senior executives from the finance and accounting industries will share their wisdom and experience with the Challenge participants.
Workshop: "Learning how to communicate effectively through social media and online platform" (Oct 2022)
In this workshop, we are proud to have 3 dynamic speakers to share their wisdom and expertise to student representatives of our approved 47 teams from UST, CUHK, HSU, HKU, CityU, PolyU, HKBU, and LingU.
For more details, please refer to the poster.
Registration for the ESG Challenge has completed (Sept 2022)
Due to overwhelming responses, the ESG Challenge is now closed for registration and the Challenge has officially started.
A total of 147 students from 49 teams registered for the ESG Challenge. Participating students come from eight UGC-funded universities and the Hang Seng University of HK. While the official opening is scheduled at Henry Cheng International Conference Centre, Cheng Yu Tung Building, CUHK on 29 Oct 9:30am-12:30pm, each team is already preparing their self-introduction video and will join a pre-opening training workshop on “Effective communication through social media and online platform” on 22 Oct. It will be an exciting journey for the participating students, we wish you all the best and good luck.
We would also like to thank the Department of Finance at the CUHK Business School for being the venue sponsor of the opening forum.
About the Hang Seng x Value Partners University Elite ESG Challenge 2023
Through joining this Challenge, everyone can become an “ESG Elite” through the e-learning and trading simulation provided!
The top winning team will receive a cash prize of HKD30,000. In addition to the cash prizes, all students who completed participation with satisfactory performance in the first stage can have a chance to receive internship and interview opportunities.
This ESG Challenge is open for all undergraduate university students in Hong Kong. The two Lead Sponsors are Hang Seng Bank and Value Partners. Major Academic Partners are Center for Investing, Finance Department, HKUST and Centre for Business Sustainability, CUHK. In addition, the Big4 (Deloitte, KPMG, EY, and PwC) are Strategic Professional Partners which will provide ESG report coaching to the finalists.
To know more about the Challenge, please visit our website at https://info4925468.wixsite.com/std-esg-competition