Which MBA? Announces Winners Of Kerrisdale Capital's International Investment Case Study Competition "Find a Zero"

Warwick Business School wins grand prize of $15,000; predicts Advanced Micro Devices, a semiconductor manufacturer, will go bankrupt by 2020

News provided by

The Economist

May 20, 2015, 11:32 ET

NEW YORK, May 20, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Which MBA?, the business education division of The Economist, has announced the winners of the Kerrisdale Capital Case Study Competition. Eighteen teams representing 17 universities competed for $26,000 total in prize money.

The competition, hosted by Which MBA? and sponsored by Kerrisdale Capital, a private investment manager, invited competing teams to find a conventional market view that is demonstrably misguided and ought to be debunked. The teams were challenged to "find a zero"–that is, predict which billion dollar market cap company will be bankrupt by 2020.

Sahm Adrangi, Chief Investment Officer of Kerrisdale Capital Management, selected the top three proposals, and visitors to the case study site voted for the People's Choice winner:

First place was awarded to the Warwick Business School team, which predicted Advanced Micro Devices, a semiconductor manufacturer, would go bankrupt within five years.
Second place was awarded to the School of Economics and Management, University of Porto team, which predicted that Peabody Energy, a coal production and trading business, would face imminent bankruptcy if it fails to restructure its debt.
Third place was awarded to the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University team, which predicted retail giant Sears would go bankrupt by 2020.
The People's Choice prize was awarded to the Aalto University team, which predicted energy company SolarCity Corporation would succumb to competition and file for bankruptcy.

"We were deeply impressed by this year's submissions to the Kerrisdale Case Study competition hosted by The Economist Group's Which MBA? division," said Adrangi. "A passion for bottoms-up business analysis was apparent in each selection. We've chosen our top three contestants on the merits of thoroughness, clarity and plausibility of bankruptcy in the next five years; after all, the contest was to find a zero."

To compete for the prize, each team submitted a written and video proposal to solve the problem highlighted in the case study challenge. The videos were recorded live and are posted along with the written proposals on The Economist's Which MBA? site.

The 18 teams hail from:

Rutgers University (two teams)
Auburn University
Loyola University Chicago
Warwick Business School
University of Massachusetts – Amherst
Aalto University
The Open University of Hong Kong
FEP – School of Economics and Management, University of Porto
Kennesaw State University
Texas Tech University
Kent State University's College of Business Administration
Okanagan College
San Jose State University
Sprott School of Business, Carleton University
University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Vermont School of Business Administration
Wagner College

To inquire about opportunities to sponsor or participate in upcoming case study competitions hosted by Which MBA?, visit: http://success.economist.com.

The case competition challenge and resulting selection of first, second and third place winners are based solely on the opinion of the challenge sponsor. The Economist does not endorse the opinions contained in the content of the challenge or the participants' written and video submissions.

About Which MBA? (economist.com/whichmba)
Which MBA? is a division of The Economist Newspaper Group which offers a suite of online products serving both prospective MBA students and business schools. Our consumer products for prospective students include a GMAT preparation course , annual MBA rankings, and content on Economist.com. Which MBA? offers multi-media advertising solutions for business schools ranging from online MBA fairs, to traditional online and print mediums, to custom white-label lead generation tools.

About Kerrisdale Capital (www.kerrisdalecap.com)
Kerrisdale Capital Management, LLC is a fundamentally-oriented investment manager that focuses on long-term value investments and event-driven special situations. Kerrisdale has approximately $330 million in assets under management and is based out of New York City. The company distributes research on its website and on Twitter at @kerrisdalecap.

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SOURCE The Economist