FMA 2017-2018 Magazine

FMA TEAM takes second place,
wins $6,000 at prestigious international case competition
Five students representing Auburn
University’s Financial Management
Association took second place
internationally out of 77 teams and won
$6,000 in scholarships Feb. 1 at the
prestigious Duff & Phelps YOUniversity
Deal Challenge in New York City.
“To pursue competitive careers out of
school, students need to express a drive
that extends beyond the classroom,” said
Jimmy Brewster, a sophomore finance
major in the Harbert College. “Auburn’s
team viewed this challenge as an
opportunity to do just that.”
Other team members included Jordan
Carr, a senior majoring in mechanical
engineering and minoring in finance,
Bailey Sullivan, a junior majoring
in industrial systems engineering
and minoring in finance, Ben Yost, a
sophomore majoring in finance and
electrical engineering, and Ty Lamar, a
junior majoring in finance.
“The students that were on the Duff
and Phelps team are incredibly driven
and hard working,” said Harbert College
finance instructor and FMA Director
Tracy Richard, “This competition
was rigorous and required a deep
understanding of all aspects of the
valuation process, including distinct
valuation approaches, and the ability
to build and explain models within
each. These students were required to
use valuation models to value not only
tangible assets, but intangible assets
as well. They immersed themselves in
investment banking and valuation selfstudy
opportunities provided by the
FMA and also relied on their internship
experience within the investment
banking industry.”
The Duff & Phelps case study put students
into consulting roles and gave them a long
list of objectives to meet in preparing a set
of multi-million dollar recommendations
to present before judges.
This year, teams played the role of
investment banking consultants
and were tasked with valuating a
newspaper publishing company (the
team recommended the company
value between $350 and $385 million),
determining what type of buyer it should
be sold to, and then recommending the
precise purchaser.
“There are several different types of
buyers that you might see,” Carr said.
“You might get a strategic buyer, which
is another big company with a similar
operation. That would be like an Exxon
purchasing a smaller oil company. Then
you have financial buyers, which are like
private equity firms looking to invest.”
The team recommended selling to a
strategic buyer.
“What we tried to focus on was how the
entire presentation flowed together,”
Carr said. “It’s real important to have a
common theme that backs up the whole
presentation and ties it together. When
you’re pitching to a board of a company,
you want the theme to run through
everything and creates a story that backs
up what your final recommendation is.”
Brewster noted that meeting a
demanding deadline with a laundry list
of recommendations was just nature of
the business.
“Duff & Phelps looked to incorporate
this theme in their challenge because of
the nature of the investment banking
industry,” he said. “Investment banking
is a very client-facing business, and
therefore the client can be extremely
demanding and ask as many deliverables
as they choose.
“The experience we had in this challenge
helped us prepare for careers in
investment banking because we improved
our multi-tasking, teamwork, and timemanagement
skills.”
Richard likened case competitions to
‘real-life experiences that challenge
students to go beyond the textbook.’
“Seldom will they encounter a
competition of this rigor where they
don’t have to build on their existing
skills. The skills required for analysis and
presentation are relevant and applicable
to what they will see in the market.”
FMA 2018 MAGAZINE 27