Rules of Competition

Composition of the teams

There will be one team from each participating school. Teams will consist of three or four students who must be enrolled in their school at the time of the competition. Team members may be substituted at the competition in case of illness or disability. It is expected, but not required, that the students will mostly be second-year (graduating in the 2007-2008 school year) MBA students. Teams should not obtain aid in solving the case from individuals who are not part of the team, and will be asked to certify that the work product they submit at the competition is their own.

Case vehicle

The case to be analyzed will be delivered to the participating teams one (1) week prior to the competition. The case vehicle, concerning a distressed company, will describe the company and the industry in which it operates. It will present the challenges facing the decision-makers in determining the appropriate restructuring steps to take.

Ancillary information about the company, industry and market data and some basic restructuring and bankruptcy principles will be provided in the case vehicle. The case competition is not intended to be a fact-finding exercise for the teams. The material included in the case vehicle is meant to provide all the information required for the case, and information or facts outside the case materials should not be considered (and will not be considered by the judges if presented).

You will be asked at the competition to certify that the work product submitted is only that of your team and its members.

Presentations

As stated in the case materials and as reflected on the competition schedule, on Day 1 of the competition (Friday, November 9) you will be making presentations, as advisors to the company, to separate panels of judges. Round one (1) presentations should focus on operational and liquidity improvements. Round two (2) presentations should focus on an analysis of the dynamics, position, and perspective of each member of the company's capital structure. The top four (4) teams at the end of Day 1 will be announced following the competitions at the Judges Feedback Session for all teams and will proceed to the second day of the competition (Sunday, November 10). On Day 2 of the competition, the finalist teams will be making specific recommednations and an implementation plan to judges who may play one or more of the following roles: 1. Board of Director Member; 2. Senior Management; 3. Senior Lender; 4. Subordinated Lender; 5. Equity Investor; 6. Potential New Lender or Investor; or 7. Other Interested Party (ies). At the end of these presentations, the judges will rank the final four teams and announce the winning team at the closing lunch.

Written presentations must be submitted to the ABI representative designated at Registration no later than 7:30 a.m. on Friday, November 9. Each presentation should not exceed a limited amount of pages to be disclosed at a later date and should include the following at a minimum:

• Liquidity analysis, including 13 week cash forecast
• Capital structure analysis, including the relative viewpoint of each constituence
• Debt capacity
• Prospects for new capital
• Valuation
• Operational alternatives
• Timeline(s)
• Other information as deemed important by the competitors
  
  

  Competitors will need to carefully consider the content of their presentations and  judge what support materials will be used. Too little detail will fail to convince and too much detail runs the risks of losing the attention of the audience and running out of time to cover key agenda points.
  Except as necessary as a tiebreaker, no points or rankings will be carried over from Day 1 to Day 2 for the finalist teams.
  The ABI reserves the right to use all or portions of your presentations in future ABI programs.

 

Judges

Judges in each of the rounds will be panels of experts from the turnaround, crisis management, distressed debt, DIP financing and bankruptcy advisory industries, as well as executives who have “lived” the experience. The pool of judges will change for each round and be representative of individuals in the area to whom the teams are presenting. One of the main benefits to participating teams will be exposure to influential members in these industries.

Judging Criteria

Each presentation will be evaluated by the panel of judges on the basis of the quality of the analysis and presentation in the following areas:

Financial and Operational Analysis

Transaction Structure

Implementation Strategy

Demonstration of understanding of negotiation dynamics

Creativity (Presentations)

Particular focus should be directed to compelling arguments, good analyses, likelihood of success, understanding of the dynamics among various constituencies, and oral skills. It is important that the presentation demonstrate a thorough consideration of viable alternatives and provides detailed reasoning for recommendations. As with most cases, there is not necessarily a right or wrong answer. The judges will be looking for the quality of the analysis and reasoning in evaluating the presentation.

Questions:

Competition/Registration or Hotel confirmation: Shannon Nelligan at ABI, (703) 739-0800 or snelligan@abiworld.org

Competition Rules: Prof. Tim Thompson at Kellogg, (847) 491-8334 or
t-thompson2@kellogg.northwestern.edu