UT MBA Students Win Regional Case Study Competition

A University of Tampa team of MBA students won the Tampa Bay ACG Cup competition at the Tampa Club last week.

UT MBA students Brandon Riley, George Hamilton, Matt Davies and Eric Kuczynski won the regional ACG (Association for Corporate Growth) Cup, with the University of Florida finishing second, followed by Rollins College and the University of South Florida. 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.

The UT team built a full leveraged buyout (LBO) model based on a hypothetical business and pitched its case to the panel that the business’ financial and strategic analysis warranted a major investment. In order to represent UT, the team earlier won a spirited competition against four other UT teams of graduate business students.

Dan Verreault, team advisor and associate professor of accounting, said the team did not make a single mistake in their model and analysis. “The team also achieved the professional, calm, conversational tone that is so important in delivering convincing results and fielding tough questions,” Verreault said. “The feedback from the judges was highly positive using phrases like ‘nailed it,’ ‘went beyond the case,’ ‘excellent job,’ etc.”

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.