The Toronto Metropolitan University in downtown Toronto organized its annual “Battle on Bay” competition from January 12 to January 15 this year. The three-day event was well-organized and featured two major competitions and many other enrichment sessions, including panel discussions, networking events, a scavenger hunt and a grand gala closing ceremony.
The competition had two components - one was a stock pitch, and the other was the “crisis case”. We did our 15-minute stock pitch on a pharmaceutical company, followed by a Q&A period.
The crisis case was more challenging, with only two hours to study the case and come up with the presentation. The topic was the merger and acquisition between Tesla and SolarCity. The case was very interesting and a bit stressful, but our team did quite well in coming up with a presentation on not just one but two companies in a short time span!
Though tiring, I found the experience quite unique as all of us were able to learn a lot about a career in finance, as well as network and make new friends. The panel discussions were quite engaging, and it must be mentioned that all of the panels encouraged more women to enter the finance industry since there is currently an underrepresentation. We hope that gap will be bridged in the future so there will be more gender balance in the finance industry!
Overall, though our team didn’t place, we learned a lot about completing stock pitches, and we hope to take part in more competitions in the future.