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November 12 and 13, 2020

The Fink Credit Pitch Competition is one of the premier MBA pitch competitions in the nation. Talented students from top business schools gather at UCLA Anderson to pitch their best credit investment idea to a panel of distinguished industry judges. Click the tabs below to learn more about how students and firms can participate.

TEAMS

Composition: Teams should consist of 3-4 MBA students, with a majority of the students being first-years. We encourage diverse teams, and require that at least one team member be a woman. More than one team from a university may submit an application for consideration; however, the competition organizers will ultimately choose only one team to represent any given university. Please note, submission of an application is not a guarantee that a team will be selected to participate in the competition.

Submission and Notification: The deadline to register is 11:59 PST on Friday, October 16th, 2020. Teams can apply using this link. Teams will be notified of decisions by Friday, October 23rd, 2020 and will be sent a link to pay the registration fee of $275.

Team Names: All teams will be assigned a Greek letter team name by the competition organizers to ensure that school affiliation is kept anonymous from the judges.

Substitutions: Accepted teams may only change team members on a case-by-case basis, with permission from the competition organizers

COMPETITION DETAILS

Security Selection: Teams will be pitching one security [long or short]. Teams must pick a security that is credit or credit-based, for example: corporate and government bonds, treasuries, and derivatives such as callable bonds and convertible bonds. The pick should be a specific debt-focused instrument, not a company/entity in general. Teams need to have a target price [upside/downside].

Pitch Content: Pitch decks should include fundamental analysis of the bond issuer, bond specific investment considerations, risk vs. return analysis, and a target price along with a buy/sell/hold recommendation.

Suggested content to include is: investment thesis/catalyst, business overview (how do they make money, why do they exist, competitive advantage, important industry trends, market share shifts, disruption, etc.), comps/relative valuation, cap table, forecasted financials, relevant key ratios (Debt/EBITDA, interest coverage, etc.), liquidity of the specific issue, organization structure, discussion of company management, historical capital allocation strategy, risks to the thesis.

Pitch Format: All pitches must be in PowerPoint format on a pre-designed template that will be provided by the competition organizers. There are no slide count restrictions, but strict time restrictions will apply (see below).

Pitch Deadline: All pitch decks must be submitted by 11:59PM PST on Tuesday, November 10, 2020. Pitches submitted after the deadline will not be considered.

Team Presentations: Presentations will occur in two rounds – a preliminary round and a final round. The presentation order for teams will be randomly assigned for both rounds.

- Preliminary Round: Teams will be randomly divided into divisions and each division will present to a group of judges. Each team will have up to 10 minutes to present, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A with the judges. Teams will not be allowed to attend other teams' pitches during the preliminary round.

- Final Round: Teams selected by the judges to move on to the final round will have up to 10 minutes to present, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A with the judges. The same security must be pitched for both rounds. Teams that do not progress to the final round are highly encouraged to attend the final round pitches.
  
  Each presentation will be officiated by a member of the UCLA Anderson School of Management community. Time limits will be strictly enforced by the official. All team members are expected to contribute to the presentation and Q&A.

Judging: All presentations will be judged by industry professionals. Judges will be provided with an evaluation form and will rank order team presentations. Areas of evaluation will include: quality of analysis, risk vs. return analysis, presentation skills, Q&A expertise [concise and clear responses, participation from all members of the team] and strength of investment thesis [how differentiated is it, thesis well supported by contextual information, understandable and executable].

AWARDS AND PUBLICITY

Awards: Announcement of the winners will be made at the awards ceremony immediately following the conclusion of the final presentations. Cash prizes totaling $6,000 will be awarded to the top three teams:

1st Place: $3,000
2nd Place: $2,000
3rd Place: $1,000

Winners will be provided paperwork to fill out immediately after the competition to facilitate their payments. All payments are contingent on the receipt of completed paperwork in a timely manner and must adhere to UCLA payment guidelines.

Publicity: All team members agree to allow their names and likenesses to be used in press materials.

THE HONOR SYSTEM

No External Aid: No outside help will be allowed from anyone in preparing the materials and presentation; help can be solicited from industry contacts to better analyze data.

Research Integrity: All data sources are fair game, including the Internet and any proprietary quantitative or fundamental models developed in advance. However, proper attribution must be provided (i.e., sources must be clearly marked on each slide).

Team Firewalls: It is expected that teams will fully respect one another's privacy, and that team members will neither seek nor provide information to anyone outside their own team.

Violations: Any violation of these rules constitutes grounds for disqualification and notification of the Academic Services dean at the offending team’s graduate MBA program.

Virtual Event – Schedule

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12
10:00 – 10:10 A.M.: Welcome Remarks
10:10 – 10:50 A.M: Round Robin Part 1
10:50 – 10:55 A.M.: Break
10:55 – 11:35 A.M: Round Robin Part 2
11:35 – 11:40 A.M.: Break
11:40 A.M. – 12:20 P.M.: Round Robin Part 3
12:20 – 12:25 P.M.: Closing Remarks

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13
9:45 – 11:05 A.M.: Round 1 Pitches
11:05 A.M. – 12:05 P.M.: “Careers in Credit” Panel Discussion Sponsored by Ivy Investments
12:05 P.M.: Announce Finalists
12:05 – 12:20 P.M.: Break
12:20 – 2:00 P.M.: Final Round
2:00 – 2:20 P.M.: Judges deliberate
2:20 – 2:30 P.M.: Winners announced