GEMSinthecity_Newsletter_7 Apr-15 April 2014

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DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not reflect in any way those of Grenoble Grad-‐uate School of Business ‘In The City’ Finance Society of which he/she is a member.

07 Apr – 13 Apr 2014

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Mission Statement To provide a platform for students at Grenoble École de Management to connect and network with finance professionals and companies loca-ted in London. Also, to give interested students the opportunity to develop knowledge of what the world of finance has to offer them and the roles they could play. And lastly, to assist com-panies in the search for the right young profess-ionals.We believe we can achieve this by organising various events with financial ser-vices firms and finance professionals in the UK, thereby building foundations for a strong professional relationship.

Content

Should you take the ACCA exam? Page 2

Quick look @ Middle East

Cities & Talent

Page 3

Page 4

Khai's reading Top 5

• Letterman’s CBS exit ends an Industry

era

• Ukraine raises fears of gas war with

Russia

• UK car sales accelerate to decade high

• Five lessons from the US payroll num-

bers

• Mortgage lender drops landlord age

limit

GEMs In The City GEM in the City (GEMITC) is GEM finance community’s London-based society. GEMITC plays an important role for finance-orientated students of GEM, because where Grenoble is famous for its innovation-driven businesses, London is the financial capital of the world. The opportunities in the finance and internat-ional business sectors are thus plentiful. Ho-wever, the matching process between firm and student can be a difficult one. Therefore, our aim is to build and maintain a professional re-lationship between our motivated students at GEM and the financial employers located in London to make this process a bit simpler. On the one hand, this is attractive to firms as it will help them to find their desired applicants. On the other, the GEM students are able to more easily navigate job opportunities and eventually find the right fit for them.

Week ended April 4, 2014

Name

Friday’s close

Weekly change

Dow Jones I.A. 16412.71 +0.55% S&P 500 1865.09 +0.40%

NASDAQ Composite 4127.73 -0.67% DAX - Germany 9695.77 +1.13% CAC 40 - France 4484.55 +1.66%

FTSE 100 6695.55 +1.21% Nikkei 225 15063.77 +2.50%

USD/JPY 103.27 +0.08% EUR/USD 1.3703 -0.54% GBP/USD 1.6574 0.54%

Brent Crude Oil $/bbl 106.74 -1.25% Gold $/oz 1302.00 +0.61%

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These are probably the most frequently heard 4 letters, if you are in the business sphere, which basically stand for Association of Char-tered Certified Accountants. But what does it actually mean? It is one of the most highly re-spected international professional qualifica-tions that without any doubt give an additional value to the owner of this certificate. Being a Chartered Accountant even can be interpreted as being a key decision maker in any area of a business. In fact, it is one of the largest and fastest growing international accountancy bodies, as it exists over 100 years and is pre-sent in over 170 countries all over the world. Having this qualification means that the hold-er has all the skills and knowledge, which are in high demand by employers in different in-dustries, banking, auditing and consulting, as well as other fields such as taxation and law.

As for any other qualification certificate, in order to complete it there are 14 exams called papers (F1, F2, F3 and so on…) to be passed, nine of which are eligible for exemption, de-pending on the degree of a candidate. There should be provided a proof of previous quali-fications or other education degrees, so that you can claim exemptions. Also, relevant practical experience is needed, with a mini-mum of three years that can be gained during or after having the certificate. Its syllabus is quite comprehensive, which focuses mainly on financial management. Up to four exams can be taken per sitting and the exams are twice a year: in June and December. Most students attempt 2 or 3 papers each sitting at either 6-monthly or yearly intervals. How of-ten students sit examinations is their choice and depends on how much time they have free for studying. In order to pass each paper, gain-ing 50% out of total is enough. All three Knowledge module examinations are two hours long and comprise multiple-choice questions. What about the Skills module ex-aminations and all Professional Level exami-

nations are three hours long and require full answers.

Passing rates differs depending on the papers: generally speaking, it is possible to conclude that it is becoming low by the paper. The last ones are the most difficult to pass. Yet, com-paring with CFA, they are much higher: at about 75 % for the first papers and 31 % for the last ones.

University graduates of any discipline and profession can apply for the program: no pre-vious knowledge of accounting or finance is required. However, professional values, ethics and governance are also very important, as the profession is moving towards strengthened codes of conduct, regulation and legislation. The examinations cover from the purely tech-nical skills, such as bookkeeping and cost ac-counting to the more theoretical aspects such as motivational theory and theories of risk. ACCA is based on international accounting and auditing standards. Fundamentally, it is very similar to an MBA, but the only differ-ence is that it offers a much more practical emphasis.

ACCA offers not only the specialist knowledge in finance and accounting, but also by the completion the holder will have valua-ble skills in organizational management and strategy. The main advantage of this particular qualification is that it is one of the most flexi-ble programs, because it doesn’t limit you to one particular sector. There is an opportunity of working in any sector all over the world: the public sector, financial services or the cor-porate sector, giving access to a broad range of complex and interesting positions. It is not only about the theory: the exams are various practical case studies. It is of a high standard and even is equivalent to completing full Uni-versity Degree. Moreover, having exams only twice a year enables to combine it with the work or any other studying program. Without any doubt, it is not an easy task to accomplish

Should you take the ACCA exam?

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and one of the very challenging programs, as the number of exams is pretty high. However, with respectable effort and hardworking, the results will not keep you waiting long. Some weeks without weekends might be expected with long-working hours with books and other studying materials.

Becoming a member of the association equips you with the skills and knowledge to become a complete finance professional. Nevertheless, having the certificate doesn’t guarantee you the top positions available in the market, as there are other factors that also play an im-portant role. But certainly it enhances the ca-reer path, making the employee more compet-itive in the job market. According to statistics, after attaining the certificate the salary of the holders usually become much higher and gives an opportunity to gain international ex-perience by suggesting mobility to employees. After reading all the benefits and some non- pleasant facts about the qualification, maybe you became interested in enrolling in this pro-gram. Hence, I will recommend to weight out all pros and cons, by having a look on the ACCA Global’s Website, in order to be ready what is expected from you.

Written by Madina Abdibayeva [email protected]

Farmer imprisoned for naming his donkey 'Sisi’ (Field Marshal Abdel El-Sisi is an Egyp-tian military commander who was Command-er-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces, as well as Minister of Defence and now running for Egyptian Presidency) Omar Abul Maged, a 31-year-old-farmer, has been jailed for dressing his donkey in a military-style cap,

covering him with posters of Sisi and naming the donkey Sisi in protest against the ouster of Morsi. Abul Maged was arrested in Sep-tember and has been sentenced by a Qena Court to a year in prison for defamation of the Military. Activists and Human Rights groups have condemned the sentencing.

UK's Prime Minister orders investigation into Muslim Brotherhood (MB) links to terrorism and extremism, potential of MB ban. The United Kingdom's Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered an investigation into the Muslim Brotherhood's activities, reported The Times and The Guardian. The investigation would examine the Muslim Brotherhoods al-leged planning of "extremist activities from Britain" including the killing of three tourists on a bus in Egypt's Taba in February. The in-vestigation was ordered after the UK recognized that there is a lack of in-formation and intelligence on the group that has been banned from Egypt and Saudi Ara-bia. If terrorist links are found, the group could be banned from the UK. The Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamist group operates many of its operations from the UK, and its official English website, Ikhwanweb, is head-quartered in London. The investigation is like-ly to be welcomed by Egypt's government, who have declared the group a terrorist organ-ization.

Coca-Cola International plans to invest $500 million in Egypt during the next three years, Minister of Investment, Industry and Foreign Trade Mounir Fakhry said in statement on Thursday.

Turkey’s Constitutional Court had ordered the ban on Twitter to be lifted on Wednesday, ruling that the blockage was a violation of the right to free expression. A statement from Turkey’s Transportation and Communications Ministry Thursday said it was in the process

Quick look @ Middle East

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of restoring access to the website. Access to YouTube however, remains blocked.

Head of Lebanese Forces Party has said that he is the 'natural candidate' for the presidency

Commercial Bank of Kuwait, the Gulf state’s fifth largest lender by assets, said a majority of shareholders had approved a plan to con-vert the bank into a full-fledged Islamic lend-er, state news agency KUNA reported.

Dubai will compete with London for a share of Islamic banks’ liquidity management busi-ness by offering a new platform for murabaha trading. Last year the Dubai Multi Commodi-ties Centre (DMCC) launched a sharia-compliant commodity trading platform, which Islamic banks could use to manage fund flows; its system allows trade in receipts rep-resenting ownership of commodities stored at warehouses.

Qatar’s financial regulator has reprimanded Royal Bank of Scotland for insufficient train-ing of its branch staff. The British state-controlled lender plans to boost funding for its cash management and trade finance business in the Middle East following a period of con-solidation

A $40 billion deal for Dubai firm Arabtec to build one million homes in Egypt may mark the start of politically-inspired Gulf invest-ment in the country’s creaking infrastructure, from housing to transport, power generation and agriculture.

Written by Youssef El-Shaikh [email protected]

Is it true that cities really attract the brightest talent? This debate has been discussed in In-stitute of Directors (IoD) at the beginning of January 2014.

Businesses can knock into a wealth of talent in cities. If we look away from London and visit Manchester, for example, it has grown exponentially as a tech hub over the past five years. Three years ago, it was difficult to find talent in the Northwest but this has changed significantly. The argument for cities is that the cities colleges and universities have been the catalyst for growth in local businesses. They deliver talent in a broad number of are-as, and city-based organisations increasingly look to directly influence curricula by work-ing on course content with students and providing internships. Its too early to rank Manchester alongside New York and San Francisco in the Worlds Top 20 digital cities for talent, it aims to be one of Europe’s Top Five tech communities.

The other side of the argument is that big cit-ies don’t necessarily have a padlock or the wizard’s wand that will have access to talent. People are beginning to want more than just the brighter lights of a city. The cost of living in larger cities is one of the main threats to talent landscape. Some of the best companies to work for are based outside major cities, for example, Impact International, a global people development company based in Cumbria, which was recently voted number one place to work (medium category) by the Great Place to Work Institute.

High quality universities and collages in smaller towns and cities, such as Warwick and Cambridge, were also seeing a rise in number of organisations that inspire young talent to seek opportunities.

What if those talented Ladies and Gents don’t just want competitive salaries, or a great post-code? Maybe a pleasant working environment

Cities & Talent

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and the opportunity to have a rewarding ca-reer.

What do you think? Send us your opinion we’ll post it on our next edition.

Written by Youssef El-Shaikh [email protected]

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Meet the City News Team

Name Function Major GGSB Contact

Valentin Servel Co-president London MSc Finance [email protected]

Sam Sharland Co-president London BIB 1st year [email protected]

Ron Sen Editor London BIB 2nd year [email protected]

Youssef El-Shaikh Editor London BIB 3rd year [email protected]

Madina Abdibayeva Editor London MIB madina.abdibayeva@grenoble-‐em.com

Abdurrahman Öztürk Designer London MSc Finance [email protected]

Documents

GEMSinthecity_Newsletter_7 Apr-15 April 2014