Open to all Economic History students
Can you convince a hardened city professional to part with their money? Can you make the case for an investment or show how a sector is about to grow – or collapse? Can you uncover the long-run trends and developments that justify serious investment?
Write a recommendation for an investment using your economic history skills and economic and financial abilities. Your idea will be judged by a panel of city professionals who will hear a short-list of finalists present in person.
The winner will receive £200 and the opportunity to shadow analysts at leading asset management and investment firm, Tikehau Capital.
What does an investment memorandum include? It should recommend an investment in a stock, bond, commodity, company, sector, currency, real estate, index or other financial instrument. Draw on your skills and knowledge of economic history to inform and motivate your analysis and recommendation: the judges will be looking for how you use your skills and knowledge as economic historians as well as your abilities as an analyst. Show us how understanding long-term developments and precedents helps us anticipate opportunities and challenges in the future. Your memorandum should include the following:
(i) The investment recommendation
(ii) The long term development of the sector or other relevant context
(iii) An analysis of the historical performance of the investment you propose against that background
(iv) Prospects for growth with a base case for expected return.
The Judges
Christian Dinesen is a Director and founder of the independent management consultancy Dinesen Associates Ltd. He is a non-executive Director and chairs the board audit committee of Allianz UK. He is also a non-executive Director of Legal & General Assurance Society Ltd, the main subsidiary of Legal & General Group Plc. Previously, he was Managing Director, European insurance credit analyst and Head of International Credit Research for Bank of American Merrill Lynch for ten years.
Joachim Liese is an independent Senior Advisor on Corporate Finance, Capital Markets and Strategy with a focus on Financial Services. Previously, he was a Senior Managing Director and Head of Financial Institutions Corporate Finance at M. M. Warburg. He was previously the European Lead Partner and Chairman Corporate Finance of Oliver Wyman Financial Services and a Director of Marsh & McLennan Companies’ MMC Securities (Europe).
Dr Peter Cirenza is a lecturer in the Economic History Department, where he has taught since 2009. He also works at Tikehau Capital, where he runs the London office and chairs the private equity and special opportunities investing units. Tikehau is a listed alternative asset manager with €23 bn in assets under management. It raises funds and invests in private equity, private debt, real estate and liquid strategies. Earlier in his career, Peter spent two decades working at Goldman Sachs in New York, London and Tokyo.
Simon MacAdam is a Global Economist at Capital Economics, one of the leading independent macroeconomic research companies in the world. He joined the company in 2015 and rotated around teams covering the UK, commodity markets and financial markets, before joining the Global Economics team in 2017. He contributes to a portfolio of written publications, ranging from short notes on key data and developments to longer pieces of applied macroeconomic research.
The small print
- This competition is open to students on any Economic History degree programme at undergraduate or postgraduate level at LSE.
- Entries can be submitted by students working alone or in pairs.
- Entries can be up to 2,000 words long.
- The text of entries must be anonymized, with all authors named in the associated email.
- Entries must be submitted by email by 2pm on 7th February 2020 to t.j.keefe@lse.ac.uk
- Shortlisted candidates will be invited to give a presentation before the judges on 10th March 2020 at 4pm in CBG.2.04. The presentations will be followed by a reception at which the winners will be announced.
- All decisions will be at the discretion of the judges.