Future investment bankers enjoy healthy returns at high finance showdown

VANCOUVER— A team of Master of Financial Risk Management (MFRM) students from Simon Fraser University placed second in the National Investment Banking Competition held at the University of British Columbia on January 13 and 14. The annual high finance showdown featured 67 teams from across Canada.

The SFU students were Lauren Looi, Simon Hutchison, Milton-Andres Bernal and Ashkan Ziabakhshdeylami. In the spirit of their heritage downtown campus, the Segal Graduate School, a site that used to serve as Western Canada headquarters for the Bank of Montreal, their team name was “The Vault.”

According to Lauren Looi, who is currently a student in the MFRM program, the stakes were especially high at this year’s competition – given the backdrop of strong commodity prices and real-world M&A storylines. “As a competing investment banking team, we needed to prepare a presentation for the board of directors of a senior gold mining firm – featuring a judging panel of mining heads & regional heads of major Canadian investment banks – who were interested in making an acquisition to expand their company-wide production profile.”

“Within five highly pressurized hours,” she said, “we were required to analyze an information sheet on the acquirer and target, guidance memo from management, and multi-tab proforma merger model, to determine the ability of the firm to make the acquisition, determine a reasonable price that the company should pay, and prepare a presentation of our recommended approach. We then had 10 minutes to present our pitch which was followed by a 10 minute Q&A session.”

As one of two finalists in the graduate division, the SFU team competed in live time against an MBA team from the Ivey School of Business in front of an industry panel and over 300 attendees – where they were narrowly defeated.

“Our students showed an impressive performance and very thoughtful analysis of an investment banking case,” said Andrey Pavlov, SFU Business Associate Professor and Academic Chair of the MFRM program.

The National Investment Banking Competition (NIBC) gathers the most accomplished professionals to assess the competitors and inform the conference delegates on pertinent issues in capital markets. The conference delegates are treated to a selection of eight capital markets focused workshops developed and guided by Canada’s leading specialists in their field, in addition to admission to the networking reception and gala dinner. Each person who attends the NIBC conference will be immersed in company with exceptional ambition and capacity, and this will play a pivotal role in driving their careers forward.

Related:

CBC Podcast featuring SFU Business MFRM candidate Lauren Looi (interview begins at 39 minute mark).

Students Compete for National Finance Prize (Vancouver Sun).