Loyola University New Orleans MBA students, Jessica Cremer and Emily Jones, and undergraduate, Dwight Davison, took second place on Saturday, March 16, at Louisiana’s Third Annual ACG Cup. The Loyola students competed in the annual case study competition against students from Tulane University and Louisiana State University.
The Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) is a global organization for professionals involved in corporate growth, corporate development, and mergers and acquisitions. The ACG Cup is an annual case study competition designed to give students from local MBA programs real world experience and invaluable insights into the areas of mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, and financial advisory services. ACG Louisiana's Third Annual ACG Cup began in February with an intra-school competition held at each participating university (Round 1), and concluded on March 16th with a regional competition between the winning teams from each school (Round 2).
"Participating in the ACG Cup was a tremendous confidence booster for our Loyola Team," stated Cremer. Cremer, Davison, and Jones were selected to represent Loyola in the regional competition after winning Round 1 against fellow MBA students on Wednesday, February 27, 2013. Four teams of three students each competed in Round 1 of the ACG Cup in conjunction with Professor Les Alexander’s Investment Banking course.
“The students performed well utilizing the valuation methodologies and financial modeling techniques learned in class to evaluate the situation outlined in the case materials,” remarked Alexander. “They were thoughtful in their analysis of the proposed strategic alternatives which they presented to a panel of industry professionals.”
Teams at the intra-school and regional level had one week during each round to review a case study, requiring a combination of corporate strategy, financial, and valuation skills, and present a recommended course of action to a panel of judges, consisting of private equity, investment banking, and other M&A professionals.
Participation in the ACG Cup provided the students with exposure to leading finance professionals and organizations in the community. "The competition affirmed the class room basics in a real-world application," said Cremer. Students had an opportunity to learn about corporate finance by looking at a transaction from the perspective of the owner, the buyer, the financial advisor, the equity investors, the debt providers and the management team.
For more information about the ACG Cup, please contact Julie Chauvin, ACG Cup Committee Chair, at (504) 593-0970 or jchauvin@stonepigman.com.
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