UT Master’s Students Win Regional Case Study Competition

For the second year in a row, a University of Tampa team of master’s degree students won the Tampa Bay ACG (Association for Corporate Growth) Cup competition at the University Club in downtown Tampa last week.

The team, which consisted of Kate Demick, Miriaku Obioha, Matt Vail and Adelaide Yego, finished ahead of teams from Rollins College, University of South Florida and Saint Leo University. ACG, the event sponsor, is the premier worldwide professional financial organization focusing on middle market companies.

The ACG Cup is a case study competition designed to give students from leading MBA programs across the country real world experience and invaluable insights into mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, financial advisory and private equity. Each case study provides students with a unique opportunity to present valuation, capital markets and merger and acquisition (M&A) strategic advice to a panel of seasoned M&A professionals from within the ACG community.

For the win, the UT team had to value a smaller, underperforming public company, assess its business and financial opportunities and risks, and advise its board on the value and wisdom of an offer to take the company private against an alternative offer to greatly increase its leverage in order to seize some potential market opportunities.

Dan Verreault, team advisor and associate professor of accounting, said, “The team performed a superb technical analysis and handled the various strategic and sensitive personnel questions from the board like professionals.”

The examining panel consisted of private equity, banking, accounting and consulting executives from the ACG professional membership. One of the judges, a managing partner from a Tampa private equity firm, commented that “the quality of written case analysis, team cohesiveness and the team’s demonstrated ability to think on their feet” was at the level he sees from the better investment banking presentations that are a part of his practice.

The ACG Cup is carried out through a series of intra-school and regional competitions, with regional winners awarded the prestigious ACG Cup for display at the school and cash awards.