On the 30^th of November 2022, the first face to face investment committee was held since lockdown. We were pleased to see over 35 students and board of advisors that attended the event.

Matteo Di Rossi CEO of LSMIF started the presentation by mentioning his future plans for the fund. He stated that in the past there has been some difficulties to manage the fund due to Covid-19, which has made the  progress of P/L slower, therefore his new plans consist of active involvement of all members, creating new roles to better manage the fund and its progression. Also mentioned there will be a democratic system in the future which will allow other members to give their feedback. Carrying on he stated the areas for improvement which he believes are critical for the growth of the fund, recruitment of members in other schools in the university to grow popularity, have a strong social media presence by being more active on all the digital platforms and by adding a key role of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) to the fund.

This session also included the portfolio asset allocation of the fund and which investments have been made, we had different members analysing the investments, and what shall be done for that stock. Some of the stocks that were discussed in this session were Ashtead Group Plc which accounts of 12% of the portfolio, Investec Plc which accounts of 8%, Beazley Plc which accounts of 13%.

Furthermore, we had a few words from our board of advisors. They commented on the presentation and gave a few tips for the future. David Spokes who is the Divisional director of Brewin Dolphin in Lincoln mentioned that the fund is performing well even though compared to FTSE 100 was underperformed, and the reason the he stated it was held up by energy and oil prices. However, he did comment on the fund’s cash holdings which are over 50%, he mentioned that just by being in the market is better that leaving large amounts of cash in the fund. For example, if £100 were invested in 1950 they would be equivalent to £184,000 in 2016. Mr. Howard Gannaway who is a financial expert and an advisor to LIBS viewed the large cash holdings of the fund as positive and mentioned‘Having large amount of cash implies that the fund is positive on new opportunities coming along’, also being impressed with the funds progress from where it started in 2015.

Overall, the event was a great success, everyone enjoyed the session the board of advisors were pleased with the progress made by the fund and the future plans set by the CEO. That is all for this week, make sure follow our twitter https://twitter.com/LSMIF_ , and subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the progression of the fundhttps://www.getrevue.co/profile/lsmif_

LIBS LSMIF are Winners at the SMIFUK22 – 1st Prize Investment Competition supported by HSBC Asset Management.

The UK’s First Student-Managed Investment Fund Conference

Student managed investment funds (SMIFs) are big business in the US, often with many millions of dollars of funds under management. SMIFs are an increasingly popular feature of UK universities but until now the only conferences have been in the US. This year it was held at the University of York and with partner Griff Investment Fund.

What the Chief Investment Officer of the LSMIF Harry Mapus-Smith said about the win

“We are thrilled to have won this competition. LSMIF tries to continuously detect and research trends in the equity markets, therefore, it was possible for us to use our experience and effectively put together a portfolio that factors in the many uncertainties of the current market. To win a competition against students from some of the most prestigious universities in the country exemplifies the ability of our senior management team and the fund as a whole. “

LIBS Associate Professor / Programme Leader – Hao Quach

“I am delighted that the team have won the prestigious HSBC competition where students from across UK universities competed to demonstrate key practical employability skills. This means we have done it right for students with the LSMIF approach.”

Third International Student Conference an Overwhelming Success!

On Wednesday 12th January, the third International Student Conference organised by the Lincoln Student Managed Investment Fund, (LSMIF) and the School of Banking and Finance at the National Economics University, (NEU), in Vietnam was held successfully to much acclaim.

With 196 student and staff participating from the University of Lincoln and the NEU, the conference saw five presentations on the theme “Investment Opportunities for the Future” with a focus on topics such as economic policies and stock markets, GenZ investments and Blockchain.  Students were keen to be involved, discussing topics in-depth and demonstrating insightful knowledge about new investment trends, popular amongst the younger generation.

Dr Hao Quach from the Lincoln International Business School commented,

“I am delighted that the third conference has been successful, particularly as it’s so clear to see our students benefitting from the experience, collaborating internationally on areas of mutual interest.  My aim is to evolve this annual conference series from beyond a purely research focus to become a wider forum in which students from both institutions can learn from each other in terms of culture, heritage and tradition”

NEU’s Professor Hue Nguyen added,

“I am very happy that our students have had an opportunity to exchange academic knowledge with students from the LSMIF.   This activity is part of the International Scientific Conference series, the second of which was held successfully in 2021.  Although the conference was moved to Zoom due to Covid and there were some inevitable technical difficulties, the heat and effectiveness of the conference remained the same. With positive feedback from the students, there will surely be other exchange activities with LSMIF at the University of Lincoln. Stay tuned and don’t miss it!”

For further information on the Lincoln Student Managed Investment Fund, please click here(opens in a new tab) or contact LSMIF@lincoln.ac.uk

Lincoln International Business School MSc Accounting and Finance student, Connor Hobbins, has successfully secured a professional practice work placement at Handelsbanken(opens in a new tab).

Connor, whose interest in finance started during his undergraduate degree in Mathematics at the University of Lincoln, told us about why he chose Lincoln and tips for gaining a placement interview.

“I chose to study at Lincoln due to it being relatively close to my home and, as I had barely been to the city before, it still felt new” says Connor.

“I am really glad that I did” he added. “My time at University of Lincoln was the best time of my life so far and if you get fully involved with everything and fully throw yourself into the experience, it is great.”

Connor decided to study maths at undergraduate after studying the subject at GCSE and A-level. During his second year at university, he realised that he wanted to go into finance.

“Going into third year I knew that I wanted to choose a finance dissertation, which worked out really well in helping me choose the next steps.”

After graduation, Connor started to look for summer internships or placement positions to undertake before returning to study a Master’s degree.

“After my BSc, I started applying for summer internship/placement positions as my plan was to take a year out before doing a Master’s course and that is when I first applied for Handelsbanken along with a few other companies.

“I got through the initial stages and was ready for the assessment centre, however, this got cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic and replaced by a telephone interview. I got through that stage and then the next and final step was a branch manager interview, but unfortunately the whole internship programme ultimately got cancelled due to Covid.”

With the current situation unpredictable, Connor started looking at his options and decided to study the MSc Accountancy and Finance(opens in a new tab) with professional practice year instead.

“The thing that made me choose the course was that it was a finance-based course with a professional practice option, where I could do a placement year. I thought this was the right thing to do, to give me some flexibility, gain some experience in a financial area with a placement that I could source myself and then write my dissertation/final project on something to do with this placement – it was ideal really.

“The Accounting and Finance course was what I hoped it would be, maybe a bit wordy at times, but altogether great. I feel like I got a really good hold on most modules and I would really recommend the course for people that are not quite set on a certain financial area.

“There are modules based on Accounting that go really in depth with the accounting side of finance, while there are other modules that evaluate how a company runs both financially and internally, how financial markets work and then optional modules like investment banking, it all links together.

“For the range it gives in a year it is a challenging course but I personally have learnt a lot from it and it has given me a better idea for what I want to do in the future.”

During his Master’s year, Connor discovered that the Business School had a student-managed investment fund (LSMIF).

“I am really interested in the stock markets and the idea of investing so I joined LSMIF at the start of the year. I put a lot of time and effort into the fund, in doing the tasks but then also doing background reading into what I was actually doing and applying that, which actually helped me out with my course a lot in the end.

“I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I did but I ended up putting together some decent reports for the fund and one of my investment recommendations got actioned in my first couple of months which was pretty cool.

“I would highly recommend it to anyone in the University, even if they have just a slight interest in financial markets and investing as my only regret is that I didn’t hear about it until my Master’s year!”

Whilst undertaking the course, Connor’s attention turned to securing a placement for his professional practice year.

“So, during this last year my main task has been to source a placement, which during Covid was really hard since not that many firms were hiring and there were two or three years of students applying.

“During this time, I was still in contact with Handelsbanken from the previous year but made sure to ask whether they had a year-long placement instead of the normal eight week internship that they ran. After interviews for other places, I got a call from a branch at Handelsbanken asking if I could do an interview the next day which was a bit daunting, so I did the interview and it went really well and then got an offer the next week which was unbelievable!”

Work placements can be invaluable due to the experience and skills you learn putting theory into practice. At his placement, Connor wants to really understand the different roles within the organisation.

“The main thing I want to gain from this is to find out exactly what every role entails, whether it be the role that I am doing, managerial jobs on the corporate or individual (personal banking) sides of things, or in roles that are in support functions, like the finance department. To me it is all about gaining experience and knowledge, so I am just going to try get stuck into as many different things as possible and then hopefully know exactly where I want to move into after the placement year and what career path I want after that point.”

After securing a year long placement, Connor has this advice for those also looking to secure a placement:

“The main tip I would give is to just be yourself and speak to the interviewer like you would to anybody else, after all, it is really just a conversation. If you can make it like a normal conversation you will be a lot more relaxed and come across happier and a lot more confident.

“Before my last couple of interviews I was really nervous, with stacks of notes on what to say if I got asked a certain question and it just didn’t help at all, I sounded like a robot reading off a script.

“Realistically you just need to know the company, know the job role and as strange as it sounds, know yourself since the interview is ultimately about you. After I started thinking like that, the process just became so much easier and I came across so much more confident whilst having a normal talk and laugh with the interviewer.”

Connor believes that his course and extra-currircular activies helped aid him during the placement application process. He said:

“One of the main thing that I learned is time-management. So all of my interviews were around my deadlines and there was so much to do in a really short amount of time so I had to really think about what I wanted to prioritise, whilst also giving myself some time to relax.

“With interviews, the only thing that helped me out was just practice, looking at unsuccessful interviews as practice for my next one and improving the method I approached it.”

Find out more about MSc Accountancy and Finance(opens in a new tab) degree or LSMIF(opens in a new tab). For information on placements the Lincoln International Business School Global Experiences team will be happy to help. Find out more here(opens in a new tab).