Schulich students win ‘Battle on Bay’

In January the Ryerson University Finance Society held its annual “Battle on Bay” conference and case competition at the Ted Rogers School of Management in Toronto. This year’s theme was mining.

In the week before the event, participants worked on a complete financial and strategic analysis of Cliffs Natural Resources, using  publicly-available information. 

The first day of the competition saw the 14 teams from universities across Canada present their analyses and strategic recommendations to a judging panel of industry leaders, including this year’s keynote speakers Ian Ball, president of Abitibi Royalties, and Ernie Lalonde, senior VP of DBRS.

On the second day teams were given 90 minutes to present a strategy that might have helped Cliffs management fend off a proxy fight. Under pressure and with no internet access, this challenge tested both their knowledge of recent events at Cliffs and their grasp of finance theory associated with proxy fights.

For the second year in a row a team from York University’s Schulich School of Business took home the top prize of $3,000 cash. Runners up included teams from Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business, Western University’s Ivey School of Business and Ryerson’s Ted Rogers School of Management.