The Winner of the FactSet Best International Contest: 5930:KS

After two weeks of rigorous vetting by our panel of top fund managers and asset allocators, we are pleased to announce the Winners of the first leg of the FactSet Top Idea Tournament, the Best International (Ex-US) contest. The Winners, Runners-Up, and Honorable Mentions emerge from a pool of over 130 submissions.

The diversity of entries was extraordinary, and the quality of submissions superb. We would like to thank everyone who participated, as well as our partner FactSet Systems for their support in this initiative and their sustained commitment to the generation of differentiated investment research and the analysts behind that process. For those whose ideas do not appear below, fear not. Your ideas remain in contention for performance-based prizes, as well as the Grand Prizes at the end of the year, worth $66k in awards and much more.

Today's winner takes home a $15k first-stage award, products from FactSet, and more. He will also appear this afternoon on CNBC's Halftime Report at ~12:15pmET to give a short pitch on his idea, and will then be presenting at the 10th Annual NY Value Investing Congress in September. Tune in. The next phase of the Tournament launches on September 8th with a Shorts-Only contest.

Now, without further delay, your winners in the Best International (Ex-US) Contest are:

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1st Place
Michael Wood (Evans Investment Council) -- Toronto, ON
Pitch: Long on Samsung Electronics (005930:KS)
Initial Price/Target Price: 1,367,000.00 KRW / 3,200,000.00 KRW
Expected Return of: 145%
Elevator Pitch: At today's prices, Samsung Electronics is trading at 9.5x 2015 operating profit of the memory business, ascribing $0 value to IT & mobile, display and home appliance businesses
Link to Full PDF: https://sumzero.com/sp/samsung_winner
Bio: Michael Wood is a Portfolio Manager at Evans Investment Counsel in Toronto, ON. Founded in 1988, Evans Investment Counsel provides investment management services to a number of high net worth individuals, families, private foundations and business owners. Today the company manages nearly CAD $1 Billion with the same global value investing process that was used when Rob Evans first began managing money. Michael attained a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from the Schulich School of Business at York University with a specialization in Economics and Finance in 2012. He is currently a CFA Level II candidate. Michael first joined Evans Investment Counsel as a summer student when he was 18 years old

2nd Place
Siddharth Choraria (APS Asset Management) -- Singapore
Pitch: Long on Tsui Wah Holdings Ltd (1314:HK)
Initial Price/Target Price: 3.98 HKD / 7.90 HKD
Expected Return of: 110.1%
Elevator Pitch: Iconic Asian Fast Casual Chain with Superior Efficiency Even Compared to Global QSR brands. Insider Buying at Prices Above Current. Shares At 52 Week Low with Meaningful Upside.
Link to Full PDF: https://sumzero.com/sp/tsuiwah_second
Bio: Sid Choraria is a member of the Asian equity investment team at APS Asset Management. Prior to this, Sid worked at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong in the Technology, Media and Telecom and Consumer Retail Investment Banking Division. Prior to Goldman, Sid worked as a buy-side analyst at Bandera Partners, a value-oriented hedge fund in New York performing bottom-up, fundamental research across value and special situations. His prior professional experience includes Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong and New York. Sid received his MBA in Finance from New York University Stern School of Business where he was recipient of the Harvey Beker Scholarship and a member of Michael Price Student Value Fund, a fund at NYU endowed by legendary value investor, Michael Price. He was a Finalist at last year's Value Investing Challenge hosted by SumZero and a Semi-Finalist at the Ira Sohn Idea Contest. APS Asset Management was founded in 1995 and amongst the largest hedge funds in the Asia Pacific region managing cumulatively over $3.0bn in AUM. APS was founded by CIO, Wong Kok Hoi and employs a fundamental, value-oriented approach to stock picking across Asia and regulated by the MAS in Singapore.

3rd Place
Joshua Kennedy (Sonian Capital Management) -- Boston, MA
Pitch: Long on Tingyi Holding Co. (322:HK)
Initial Price/Target Price: 21.40 HKD / 32.00 HKD
Expected Return of: 48.1%
Elevator Pitch: Tingyi, China's leader in noodles and beverages, combines scale and powerful distribution with a strong brand to form a durable competitive advantage in a growing market.
Link to Full PDF: https://sumzero.com/sp/tingyi_third
Bio: Joshua Kennedy is Managing Partner of Sonian Capital Management, a long/short global value manager based in Boston. He previously served as Portfolio Manager at Liberty Square Asset Management and began his career on the news staff of The Wall Street Journal. He holds a BA in Religious Studies from Brown University and an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business. Sonian Capital Management is a global equity investment manager. We are value investors; we invest for absolute capital appreciation over a multi-year time horizon. We seek to identify long and short opportunities with asymmetric risk-reward profiles through fundamental analysis of individual companies. We predominantly focus on opportunities outside the United States.

Congrats to all on a terrific start to the FactSet Top Idea Tournament.

Now that you've downloaded PDFs check out the following:

Clip of the winner on CNBC: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000291884
Article on Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/sumzero-factset-winning-samsung-thesis-2014-7

Best,
The SumZero Team