LBS students win private equity case competition

The winning team beats rivals from global business schools to claim top spot

Five London Business School (LBS) students have won the Cinven Private Equity Case Competition, beating teams from INSEAD, Saïd, Cambridge Judge, Columbia and Kellogg business schools. 

Veronica Tan, an MBA student at LBS, was part of the winning team that had to make a case for either investing in Weight Watchers or passing on the opportunity. This latest success comes months after the team won the US-based Wharton MBA Buyout Case Competition in early 2017. 

Playing the role of private equity investors, Tan and her teammates presented their business proposal for increasing the company’s revenues to an expert judging panel.  

“We came up with operational and growth initiatives that would add value above and beyond what Weight Watchers was already doing,” Tan says. “We had all these innovative plans for the company that would contribute value.” 

All 11 teams were given seven days to research Weight Watchers’ financial performance and business model to come up with a proposal for acquiring the company or explain why they had rejected the investment opportunity. They then presented to the judges at LBS’ campus in London. 

The presentations were held over a day, with four of the 11 teams chosen from round one to discuss their proposals in greater detail during the final.

Wining the Wharton Buyout Competition in the US encouraged Tan’s team – comprising Vasilis Ameranis, Daniele Cozzi, Qinglong Meng and Arif Sidharta – to enter the Cinven contest a few months later. 

“We really enjoyed working together and had a great team dynamic, so when this competition on home ground came up, we thought it would be a pity to pass up on working together again,” Tan says. “After our success in the US, we thought we perhaps stood a chance of also doing well at the Cinven competition.”