The ICMA Centre, University of Reading is set to have one of the largest Reuters equipped facilities in the world outside investment banks by 2008.

The ICMA Centre – supported by the International Capital Market Association – has been a strong supporter of teaching students the application of trading and already has two dealing rooms with 62 workstations, 40 of which are equipped with Reuters products. This year 30 workstations were upgraded with the latest version of Reuters 3000 Xtra, Reuters premium desktop product, and a further 10 with the new Reuters Trader product, which is a web-based system students will be able to access from any workstation.

The extension to the ICMA Centre which opens in October 2008, will include a new flagship dealing room with another 50 workstations which will also be equipped with Reuters 3000 Xtra – the ICMA Centre will then have a total of 112 fully equipped workstations, which equals the size of a medium sized investment bank’s dealing floor.

Simon Walker, Director of Corporate Marketing & Communications at Reuters comments: “Reuters are delighted to be involved with setting up this facility for students at the ICMA Centre who will benefit greatly from using our state of the art equipment. This is an exciting opportunity for the students to experience what it is like in the real commercial world.”

This means the ICMA Centre is poised to be the top school for those looking to pursue a career in high finance and dealing – lucrative careers which are highly competitive. Students from across the world already line up to study at the ICMA Centre and thanks to the 50 additional Reuters workstations in the run up to 2008, the exposure of students to financial products that are used in the “real world” is becoming even greater.

Reuters has long been a supporter of financial markets education and the ICMA Centre:

“The renewal of our commitment to the ICMA centre with upgraded infrastructure, products and branding is a natural manifestation of a successful relationship that started over 10 years ago. Students will be able to benefit from the latest technologies that are used in the financial industry and will learn how to play the markets without losing any real money. I am very excited that we will be able to explore further the many opportunities in financial markets education that both the Centre and Reuters share.” Elke Behrend, University programme manager, Reuters Ltd.

The ICMA Centre was the first business school in Europe to have dealing room facilities and these facilities are more extensive than any other university/business school in the UK. In total the ICMA Centre has dealing rooms with a total of 62 terminals all dedicated to the practical application of finance, a facility that makes the ICMA Centre unique in Europe.

Finance is taught far more effectively when theoretical rigour is combined with practical application. As an integral part of their programmes, students are required not only to price and trade a variety of asset classes using dedicated teaching software, but also to manage a portfolio of equities using live prices. The dealing room environment is made all the more realistic through the use of telephones and open outcry during trading.

The ICMA Centre’s Dealing Room Director, Dr Michael Smith commented that “Our state-of -the-art Reuters dealing rooms have been instrumental in producing students of the highest quality who are, in terms of their practical usefulness to an investment bank, far ahead of those who have had a more traditional theoretical finance education.”

The centre will also feature two 50″ plasma screen information points which will show the latest news from Reuters.

The ICMA Centre Finance and Investment Society recently visited Invesco Perpetual, the second largest Investment Company in the UK. The aim of the visit was not only to assist members in gaining a deeper understanding of the investment industry but also to enable them to learn of the relevant skills needed for the future and to liaise with industry professionals. The members also wanted to gain an invaluable insight into the actual workings of a financial institution.

The ICMA Centre Finance and Investment Society was founded in 2004 and currently has 75 members. The aim of the society is to assist in the professional, educational and social development of students interested in finance, banking and investment.

The society chose Invesco Perpetual, as it is one of the UK’s largest independent investment managers which forms part of the AMVESCAP Group. AMVESCAP Plc’s total assets under management are $449.9 billion as at 31st October 2006. Presently, Invesco Perpetual’s most popular fund is Invesco Perpetual’s High Income Fund. The Fund’s size is £6,448 million as at 29th September 2006. It is the 2nd largest Investment Company in the UK as at September 2006, source Investment Management Association.

During the visit, Sarah Girling, Regional Sales Manager of Invesco Perpetual, enhanced the students’ knowledge of Invesco Perpetual and the Fund Management world through a company and industry overview. Ms Girling also talked about Invesco Perpetual’s specialisations, its competitors and its culture differentiating them from their competitors. Hayley Thurlow, HR Adviser of Invesco Perpetual, went through the recruitment process including required skills and job opportunities at Invesco Perpetual. Through this, students learnt that Invesco Perpetual provide internships or work experience for students ranging from school leavers to final-year students.

Everyone enjoyed the visit which included a tour of the offices and working environment, which the students relished: Amanda Lye, who is in her final year of the Centre’s BSc International Securities, Investment and Banking said, “It was great to see the offices and the working environment in person rather than just reading about it on the website. It was also a good opportunity to meet and network with employees of Invesco Perpetual who were very friendly and welcoming. All in all, the visit to Invesco Perpetual was a very educational experience!”

A student at the University of Reading’s ICMA Centre has won a prestigious investment banking prize. Diana Calin, an MSc student studying International Securities, Investment and Banking at the ICMA Centre, University of Reading, has won the Eurekahedge Prize for the best paper on hedge funds after working on a major project which formed the bulk of her MSc.

Diana, who moved to the UK from her native Romania received a £10,000 scholarship from the ICMA Centre to study for their MSc in International Securities, Investment and Banking. She graduated in July 2006 with a distinction.

Her project – supervised by Jacques Pezier, Visiting Professor at the ICMA Centre – is an empirical study of Asian hedge funds employing a Long/Short Equity Strategy. Her paper is entitled ?Is there an optimal mix between alpha and beta benefits in hedge fund returns??, a title suggested by Eurekahedge.

This project is a significant commitment and is subject to a rigorous academic review. Students who focus their projects on hedge funds are able to access the Eurekahedge database of more than 7,000 hedge funds.

Diana said: ?I am delighted at being awarded the Eurekahedge Prize, an accolade that comes in recognition of my merits and of the hard work and dedication that went into producing my research project. This research explored the challenging problem of the evaluation of hedge fund returns, by differentiating between the benefits resulting from manager skill and the ones resulting from risk taking. I would like to thank both Eurekahedge and the ICMA Centre for having the initiative of bridging the gap between the academic and the financial markets.

?I now hold a Treasury Analyst position within Citibank Romania, after having worked for a short period of time for the Romanian Commercial Bank as an Assistant Manager Corporate.”

Eurekahedge became involved with the ICMA Centre in 2005, working on a joint initiative to develop working papers on the hedge fund industry. The motivating factor for this partnership is the combined desire to encourage an appropriate risk management approach to alternative investments while bridging the gap between academic research and applied finance.

Research at the ICMA Centre focuses on quantitative finance, market microstructure, fund management, risk management and regulation; hence papers will focus on topics ranging from statistical analysis to portfolio construction of hedge of funds. To assist their research the academic staff and students at the ICMA Centre now have access the Eurekahedge database. The collaboration is set to continue with Eurekahedge offering more free use of further databases to ICMA Centre staff and students. This is particularly relevant to the ICMA Centre’s new MSc in Investment Management which has attracted a large number of students for this academic session.

Diana’s project will be mentioned in the Eurekahedge newsletter and she will also receive a copy of Eurekahedge’s ?Asset Growth Guide?, a resource aimed at helping emerging fund managers as well as established fund managers to develop their businesses.

Three other students on Diana’s course were also highly commended for their work: Antonios Vrailas, Hong Hung Quach and Yiannos Xenophontos.