tong_december_2023-lbo-basecase.pdf
- Author (aut): Tong, Ethan
- Thesis director: Simonson, Mark
- Committee member: Kelly, Robert
- Contributor (ctb): Barrett, The Honors College
- Contributor (ctb): Department of Finance
When you watch a soccer team play, the major determinant of success, wins, attributes to the quality of players and coaches, and consequently the actions they make in a game. The commercial success of a sports business, in some fashion, is affected by those same factors. It is the job of an effective sports business to manage financial values in order to maximize the potential for the management of the team. Contracting, in terms of sports management, is a key component for the financial capabilities of every soccer organization, and the valuation of player contracts can be identified as an indicator of success or detriment of a team. The goal of this paper is to explore the current contractual inconsistencies of professional soccer organizations and create a model that projects success based on average player contract and market values. The model summarizes the actual market and contract values from the top 5 leagues over the last 5 years (2018-2023) and segments the data into 4 projections based on UEFA Champions League qualification, top half of total standings, bottom half of total standings, and relegation. This summary is then filtered to establish a range of expected contract and market values for each segment, which in turn can be used as an estimation tool for professional teams to make financial projections for the success of their team.
Significant efforts to catalogue and record the wave of global business retreats from the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war by Russia in February 2022 were made by researchers and professors in the Yale School of Management. This paper analyzes the statuses of these firms through historical publications of the Yale database and attempts to explain the likelihood of a business retreat through many factors, such as industry sector and country of origin. Taking into consideration the grading scale proposed by the Yale School of Management, companies within the Information Technology sector, and companies originating within the U.S. had the highest percentage of eventual “A” ratings within their groups. Statistical tests meant to analyze the stock market reaction to the public companies that were given “F” designations by the Yale School of Management saw that U.S. companies had a lower return than the S&P 500 on average on 2/24/22, whereas companies within the Consumer Staples sector outside of the United States were seen to have had positive returns on 2/24/22. The paper also provides analytics detailing the scope of the corporate exodus from Russia based off of information provided by the Yale School of Management and creates inquiries that may be beneficial to additional research on the topic.
Beyond Meat revolutionized the meat substitute industry after creating a product similar to real meat in taste, texture, and appearance. Beyond Meat quickly rose to success, but that success brought new competitors, regulatory pushback, and the realization that Beyond Meat's market size is smaller than touted. This paper aims to predict the future financials and valuations of Beyond Meat under different assumptions while detailing the company's rapid growth and subsequent stagnation.