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Winning team of the winter 2017 Equity Valuation Live Case

Details: Category: Rising Stars; Published: 16 May 2017

Each semester, students in the final-year Equity Valuation classes (ADM 4350 and ADM4750) take part in a real-world, real-time project, competing with each other to advise a business that is facing a difficult situation. Led by Professor Nitani, students during the winter 2017 semester tackled a challenge being faced by Dragonwave Inc., a company that offers high capacity broadband wireless networking systems for network operations and service providers.

Scott, a member of the winning team, described his experience: “The competition challenged my team’s ability to separate the information that truly mattered from all of the noise. We also had to actively fight our own biases as we created our valuation and storyline for the company.” According to Scott, his team brought many different strengths to the table, which ultimately sold the judges on their investment recommendations. Scott has one semester left of his undergraduate studies before he graduates in December. He’s currently one of the Capital Fund’s Portfolio Manager Leaders and will be working in investment banking at BMO Capital Markets this summer.

For Roma, another member of the winning team, the Equity Valuation case competition was the most all-encompassing and fun competition of his undergraduate studies. He really enjoyed the challenges associated with valuating a small public company, exploring the possibility of an acquisition, and presenting his team's hard work to fellow classmates, faculty, and industry professionals. After his graduation in June, Roma will be working as a Private Equity Associate at an Ottawa-based firm while pursuing his CFA designation.

Congratulations to the winning team:

Roma Stepanchenko
Scott Beiersdorfer
William Tu

Winning teams of the Fall 2016 Equity Valuation Live Case

Details: Category: Rising Stars; Published: 20 December 2016

Each semester, students in the final-year Equity Valuation classes (ADM 4350 and ADM4750) take part in a real-world, real-time project, competing with each other to advise a business that is facing a difficult situation. Led by Professors Nitani and Racicot, students during the fall semester tackled a challenge being faced by the management team of Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc. (IRG). Imvescor is a Quebec-based franchisor of four leading Canadian restaurant chains: Bâton Rouge, Trattoria Di Mikes, Scores, and Pizza Delight, as well as a manufacturer of packaged food sold by grocers.

Over the past few years, the market and financial performance of Imvescor improved substantially from previous periods. Led by its CEO, Frank Hennessey and CFO, Tania Clark and their team, the price of Imvescor’s shares had more than doubled, reflecting a clear improvement in its underlying profitability and prospects. However, in late summer, some institutional investors had written to Imvescor’s Board of Directors to encourage the firm to put itself “up for sale”, arguing that its shares were thinly traded. Meanwhile, Imvescor’s management team was planning for continued growth. In this context, students were challenged with providing Mr. Hennessey and his team with recommendations on how to proceed.

Final presentations of the best submissions were held on December 8th, 2016 with the top three submissions presenting their recommendations to the management team of Imvescor and a panel of finance professionals. Several student teams not only valued Imvescor, but also recommended and valued potential strategic acquisition targets.

The Telfer School was honoured to welcome Imvescor CEO, Frank Hennessey, and CFO, Tania Clarke, as active participants in this assignment. Both met with the students during the fall, directing students to key public-domain resources, and Mr. Hennessey was present during students’ presentations. The Telfer Scool is grateful for their involvement. Likewise, we acknowledge Hugh Johnston, CPA, CA, a strategic and financial architect who specializes in the restaurant business. Mr. Johnson travelled from Toronto to hear the students’ presentations and to provide valuable feedback.

Fourth year Finance student Nick Kazaka described his experience: “The live case represents a unique opportunity for students to present to the CEO and upper-management of a company worth hundreds of millions of dollars on the strengths of its business, its intrinsic value and even provide recommendations for management going forward. The class and this live case in particular, demands an incredible amount of work during a short time frame. However the transferrable skills and experience from the case gives students a great introduction to equity research and valuation, and a taste of investment banking”.

This year, two teams tied for first place. Congratulations to:

Eric Carmichael and Valerie Brault
Evan Kerr and Nick Kazaka

Third place was awarded to:

Tina Liusun and Andy Yu

Congratulations to the winning team for best poster:

Adriano Pagliarello and Raymond Holtforster

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The following article was written by a member of our student community. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Telfer School of Management. For more information or to flag inappropriate content, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Congratulations to the winners of the Winter 2017 Equity Valuation Live Case

Congratulations to the winners of the Fall 2016 Equity Valuation Live Case