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Monday, April 29, 2013

Winning Entry at Columbia Business School's Pershing Square Challenge

Columbia Business School recently held the annual Pershing Square Challenge.  It is a wonderful event where students at Columbia research and pitch investment ideas to a panel of incredibly distinguished judges.  This year's panel of judges included: Bill Ackman (Pershing Square), AJ Agarwal (Blackstone Group), Craig Effron (Scoggin Capital), Mchael Gerstner (MSD Capital), Paul Hilal (Pershing Square), Philip Hilal (Kingdon Capital), Alex Klabin (Senator Investment Group), Dahlia Loeb (Kensai Asset Management), Mick McGuire (Marcato Capital), Billy Rahm (Centerbridge), Jonathan Schwartz (Seneca Capital Investment Partners), and Whitney Tilson (Kase Capital).  The winning team gets $100k (generously put up by Pershing Square) and the team can then donate or keep that money.

This year's winning presentation was on Hertz (HTZ).  They make the pitch for HTZ being undervalued and worth $36 per share versus approximately $24 where it currently trades (50% upside).  They point to the oligopoly-like nature of the car rental business now that the industry has consolidated as a reason for increasingly attractive economics.  Additionally they believe the divestiture of the rental business would allow HTZ to create significant value.

Here is the detailed 90 slide presentation.

Enjoy.




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