NHH and PwC join forces to develop a new evaluation concept for the course FIE441 Taxes and Business Strategy
The overall focus of the master course FIE441 Taxes and Business Strategy is to provide students with a basic understanding of the international tax environment and how it affects corporate behavior.
For the first time the ordinary school exam has been replaced with a written case project designed in cooperation with PwC. The case was initiated on February 28 on NHH campus where Kjetil Vinnes Raknerud from PwC Norway, Elisa Casi-Eberhard (NHH), Guttorm Schjelderup (NHH), and Simone Traini (NHH) presented the case to the students. 51 students take part in the case, and they are divided into 11 teams.
Each team has a PWC mentor. The task of the case is to the design the best post-M&A deal structure from a tax perspective between the buyer, which is US multinational company, and the target, which is a Norwegian multinational company. Armed with key financials of the hypothetical buyer and target and videos from the theory lectures, each student team will work as a tax advisor and develop the tax-efficient structure of the new company post-acquisition. The teams are required to deliver a written report and a short video where the solution to the written project is presented. On March 28, a second event will be hosted on NHH campus where PwC representatives and the NHH teaching team will provide intensive feedback to each team on the respective performance followed by a social event in the evening.
The idea behind the case is to put theory into practice. Furthermore, the evaluation format and the feedback session represent an excellent opportunity to train our students on how to write and present in a concise yet convincing manner a complex topic like a post-M&A company structure. This is a key skill that is highly demanded in today’s work environment. Finally, through the written project, we offer an exclusive industry contact from one of the largest employers of business students in Norway and worldwide.
We are extremely grateful to Kjetil and PwC Norway for the enthusiasm, energy, and time devoted to this project, and we are looking forward to working on strengthening our collaboration even further in the future!