What was the event "Finesse"?

The event was conducted in two stages -

In the first stage a comprehensive 30 question on Private Equity was conducted. It comprised of Numerical questions and some fundamental based questions. The first round had 60 teams comprising of 3 members each. The event VISTA had participants from the most reputed B schools of India including IIM-A, XLRI, FMS, ISB - Hydrabad, IIM-Indore, IIM - L, NITIE, KJ Som etc

Out of these 60 teams, 10 teams were selected. Out of which 6 teams were from IIM-B, 1 from

XLRI, 2 from PUMBA and 1 from some other college.

Stage two of the event -

Sectoral reports of 4 sectors (Pharma, Automobiles, FMCG and Steel) were provided to the participating teams. The sectoral reports comprised of comprehensive data on the expected CAGR, the associated risk factors, the potential for growth drivers for the sector. A risk return model based on probability of Favorable, Neutral and Unfavorable event was provided.

A list of 16 companies, 4 from each sector was provided along with the related financial information. Each team had to value all the 16 companies independently for themselves and decide for the fair value of acquisition for each firm. Each team was given Rs. 3,00,000/- and was asked to submit their bid based on their valuations.

On acquiring these companies, the organizers floated a news on each of the 4 sectors. Based on the news and the judgement of the teams, we had to decide where we wanted to invest

our money to ensure growth of our companies. The decision was based on the our understanding of Corporate Finance related to our companies. On allocation / reinvestment the organizers calculated the net worth of our company and conveyed the same to all of us.

At the end of this we entered a Mergers and Acquisitions round. We were allowed to sell our companies and to acquire new companies from other participating members. This was based on our Corporate Strategy and our view on the growth of the sectors and our expectations on the future growth in various sectors.

Again this was followed by a similar round of news and we were asked to make our reinvestment decisions again. Then the net worth of all the teams were recalculated and the winners were declared.

And the winners are ........................ MAVERICKS from PUMBA, with a net worth of Rs. 7,75,000/- and the runners up was a team from IIM-B with net worth of Rs. 5,25,000/-

It was a day long exercise, which was a great learning and an equally entertaining experience for us.