To buy or not to buy, that was the question at Ivey's Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing stock picking competition. Twenty-seven teams of MBA students, many from prestigious business schools from around the world, sought to answer this question when asked to provide analysis on a value stock.
When the initial groups were whittled down to four, it was time to get down to serious business. Teams hailing from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, Columbia Business School, St. Mary’s Sobey School of Business and Ivey Business School were now vying for a share of $17,500 in prize money.
With a week to prepare a comprehensive report on a particular value company, teams travelled to Toronto to present in front of a distinguished panel of value investors.
After rigorous blind judging it came down to two schools: St. Mary’s and Ivey.
“Both teams presented crisp presentations with flexible thinking in the Q&A sessions,” said Doug Winslow, Burgundy Asset Management. “Both teams had good coverage of the potential risks. However, the first place team highlighted some keys factors that affect the governance, the management of the business and notably management incentive measures.”
In the end, the team of Dev Nath, Morris MacLeod and Bill MacGregor of St. Mary’s prevailed, taking the top prize of $10,000.
According to MacGregor, answering the question “to buy or not to buy” was made possible with teamwork.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been on a high performing team before and it’s been an amazing experience. I trust these guys so much. A lot of times they took me outside of my comfort zone and I was willing to go there and that was really powerful.”
Related Articles
