A team of three undergraduate students at Warwick Business School are now seeking votes as part of their participation in The Economist’s first ever undergraduate Investment Case Study competition.

Alessandro Presa Perez, a BSc Accounting & Finance student alongside Ivan Pedretti and Toby Bardavid, both BSc Management students, are competing for the prestigious award, with $26,000 in prizes up for grabs.

The trio had two weeks to prepare a draft proposal on an intriguing business problem entitled Find a Zero: Which Billion Dollar Company Will be Bankrupt by 2020.

They forecast Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) will be the company to fail and file for bankruptcy by 2020 in their 15-minute webinar, now available on The Economist’s education website for viewing and submitting votes.

To read more about the participants and submit your vote for the WBS team, simply follow the link above and log on to your The Economist account. If you have not already registered, it is free to do so, and you can view three free articles each week.

Mr Perez said: “We are thrilled to participate in The Economist's case study competition and represent WBS for the first undergraduate edition. 

The Economist is offering us an unrivalled chance to intellectually challenge ourselves and compete against other driven undergraduate students.

“This year's competition is truly fascinating as the open-ended nature of the challenge will allow us to demonstrate our creative abilities. We hope to produce a convincing proposal and bring home a prestigious prize!"

Professor Louise Gracia, Associate Dean Undergraduate Programme at WBS, added: “It is great to see our team of final year undergraduate students really embrace The Economist's competition. 

“They have put into practice a number of the skills they have been learning at Warwick and have worked hard to put together a compelling case and webinar on the issue, while demonstrating great team-working abilities, communication skills and creativity.

“Regardless of their success, participating in such an esteemed event will really give the students some great expose. Their video will feature on The Economist site, alongside their profiles.

“I am sure they will enjoy and benefit enormously from participating in the event and we wish the team all the best.”

First place will be awarded a $15,000 prize pot as well as a trophy, while second place will win $5,000 and a plaque, with the third-placed team receiving $3,000 and a plaque. The value of other prizes brings the total prize pot to $26,000.

The winners will be selected by the sponsor of the competition, with the overall prize winner announced on May 20.