Mr. Yoshiro Ito, Executive Director, Morgan Stanley, Japan visited the Amrita School of Business at Ettimadai, Coimbatore on August 7, 2006 to share with the students his valuable expertise in the field of Investment Banking. Born in Chiba (near Tokyo), Mr Ito graduated as a Bachelor of Science from the University of Tokyo. His career started as a business consultant in Mitsubishi Research’s business consultation division where he developed business strategies for companies like Sony, IBM etc. After gaining a few years of work experience, he moved to the United States of America for further studies at Harvard Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and John F Kennedy School.
Mr. Ito held workshops on the 8th, 9th and 10th of august, 2006 for the second year MBA (Finance) students. The workshops aimed at giving an insight into the activities of Morgan Stanley, focusing on company valuation for Mergers and Acquisitions and Real Estate Banking.
Workshop 1 (8th Aug, ’06): Mr. Ito gave anecdotes from the life of Mr. John Peter Morgan and spoke about the evolution of Morgan Stanley as an Investment Banking firm. In this session, he focused on how Morgan Stanley does financial projections for valuation of companies as an investment option. With the help of the financial projections reports of Reliance Industries Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, Mr. Ito explained how financial projections are done to state whether the investors should maintain an underweight or overweight stance on the stock of the company. He also briefed us on the various methods of valuing a firm – Discounted Cash Flow Method using Net Present Value (NPV), Trading Comps (Comparable Companies) etc.
Workshop 2 (9th Aug, ’06): On the second day of the workshop, Mr. Ito talked about how to value non-profit organizations. He also discussed a case study published by the Harvard Business School, ‘Congoleum Corporation (Abridged)’. Through this case study, Mr. Ito explained why Mergers and Acquisitions take place and what factors are taken into consideration for post acquisition valuation of a firm. He spoke about how corporations can be valued in two ways – static and dynamic valuation. Valuation methods differ depending on the purpose for corporate valuation and the person who is valuing the firm.
Workshop 3 (10th Aug, ’06): Continuing the discussion on the Congoleum Corporation Case, Mr. Ito spoke about the concept of Leveraged Buyouts (LBOs) and the inherent benefits they provide to the acquiring firm. He also discussed another Harvard Business School case study, ‘International Place (A): Boston Real Estate Playoff’. Using the case, he spoke about the current trends in the real estate market in Japan and rest of the world.
Colloquium (10th Aug, ’06): Mr. Ito addressed the first and second year students of Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore, on his career as an investment banker and on the current scenario in the Japanese capital markets. It was a surge in the mergers and acquisitions in the USA market at the time when Mr. Ito was graduating as an MBA that prompted his interest in a career in investment banking. He spoke in brief about the capital markets of Japan and the USA. The Japanese investors today have become much more demanding and want more information and disclosure from the companies they invest in compared to ten years ago. There was very little scope for a mergers and acquisitions market in Japan earlier, but this market is thriving today. He also mentioned that more and more Japanese companies are conforming to international standards of financial reporting, thus leading to more efficiency.
Mr. Ito’s workshops and colloquiums helped to give the students an exposure to investment banking and real estate markets. It was an honor to have been a host to such an eminent corporate personality. It was, indeed, an enriching rendezvous.
Contributed By
 
Renuka Mohan & Shruti Venkataraman
MBA 2005-2007
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