Apr 2025Founding
Society founded
The University of Reading Mergers & Acquisitions Society is formally established.
01 / 10
University of Reading · Est. April 2025
Mergers & Acquisitions,
researched in depth.
The University of Reading’s research society for mergers and acquisitions. Monthly publications, case competitions, and senior-speaker events.
3rdUK & EU M&A Finals
6Issues published
12Research team
01 · Take-Private
Pershing Square→Universal Music Group
$64.4BAckman's SPARC vehicle running at UMG. A re-list on the NYSE to close the structural Amsterdam discount.
02 · Reverse Morris
Unilever→McCormick
$44.8BThe decade's largest FMCG carve-out. Unilever's foods division folds into McCormick to form a $20B flavour platform.
03 · Roll-Up
QXO→TopBuild
$17.0BBrad Jacobs' third major deal in a year as QXO accelerates toward $50B in revenue.
04 · Satellite
Amazon→Globalstar
$11.6BLicensed spectrum and direct-to-device connectivity. A serious play against Starlink.
05 · Insurance
Standard Life→Aegon UK
£2.0BUK pensions consolidation creating a £480B AUA retirement platform across 16M customers.
06 · Fintech
Mastercard→OneSpan
UoR PitchThird-place pitch. Identity, authentication and open banking.
01 · Take-Private
Pershing Square→Universal Music Group
$64.4BAckman's SPARC vehicle running at UMG. A re-list on the NYSE to close the structural Amsterdam discount.
02 · Reverse Morris
Unilever→McCormick
$44.8BThe decade's largest FMCG carve-out. Unilever's foods division folds into McCormick to form a $20B flavour platform.
03 · Roll-Up
QXO→TopBuild
$17.0BBrad Jacobs' third major deal in a year as QXO accelerates toward $50B in revenue.
04 · Satellite
Amazon→Globalstar
$11.6BLicensed spectrum and direct-to-device connectivity. A serious play against Starlink.
05 · Insurance
Standard Life→Aegon UK
£2.0BUK pensions consolidation creating a £480B AUA retirement platform across 16M customers.
06 · Fintech
Mastercard→OneSpan
UoR PitchThird-place pitch. Identity, authentication and open banking.
Live deal coverage · Mar 2026
Award · 2026Awarded 3rd of 120+ teams · UK & Europe M&A Case Competition 2026 · Judged by Nomura, PJT Partners, Neuberger Berman, BGF.
About · 02
A research society focused on mergers and acquisitions.
Reading · Henley Business School · Est. April 2025
Founded in April 2025 to give Reading students a proper way into mergers and acquisitions. We run a monthly publication, enter national and European case competitions, and host fireside chats with senior people from investment banking, private equity, and venture capital.
Members pick up sector knowledge, learn to model transactions end to end, and get to present their own work back to practitioners, to competition judges, and to the rest of the society.
Every piece is reviewed and edited before it goes out. The coverage runs from day-to-day deal monitoring and sector briefings right through to full transaction analyses: the strategic rationale, the synergies model, and the deal structure.
013rdUK & Europe M&A Finals
02120+Out of 120+ participants
0312Research team · Reading & Henley
049+Events · first academic year
Achievements · 03
A first year, on the record.
Every event and publication on record, running from the society's founding in April 2025 through to the third-place finish at the UK & Europe M&A Finals in March 2026.
Research · 04
The monthly M&A brief.
A monthly publication covering the deals shaping the market. Commentary, sector notes, and the occasional technical piece. Written by the research team and edited before publication.
Apr · 2026 PDF
Issue · 07
April Newsletter
Seven deals from a month defined by structural innovation. Standard Life / Aegon UK, Unilever's $44.8B Reverse Morris Trust with McCormick, Ackman's $64.4B run at Universal Music Group, Hexagon / Waygate, Amazon / Globalstar, QXO / TopBuild, and Vedanta's five-way demerger. Plus a new Legal Dynamics section.
Read
Apr · 2026 PDF
Issue · 06
Quarter 1 Report
A consolidated first-quarter report covering the society's deal coverage universe and the research team's read on the deal environment through Q1 2026.
Read
Mar · 2026 PDF
Issue · 05
March Newsletter
PIF / EA, UniCredit / Commerzbank, Nuveen / Schroders, Denso / Rohm, and Bain / Perpetual Wealth. Plus the synergies model from our third-place pitch.
Read
Feb · 2026 PDF
Issue · 04
February Newsletter
Apple's $2B acquisition of Q.ai, plus the team's view on cross-border consolidation across European banking.
Read
7 issues published to dateView the full archive
Featured work
Outside the monthly cadence.
Research published outside the monthly newsletter. Pitch decks from case competitions and standalone special reports.
PDFSpecial ReportApr · 2026Somnigroup / Leggett & Platt
By Roberto Bodegas and Safeer Hussain
A $2.5B all-stock acquisition that completes the full bedding value chain. Twenty pages on the DCF, the deal structure, the $50M synergy case, and the one question that decides it: whether the FTC, which blocked a similar Leggett deal before, lets this one close.
Open PDF
PDFPitch DeckMar · 2026Mastercard / OneSpan
The full third-place pitch deck. Strategic rationale, the synergies model, and the transaction structure, all presented to judges from Nomura, PJT Partners, Neuberger Berman and BGF.
Open PDF
PDFSpecial ReportMar · 2026March 2026 Analysis
By Roberto Bodegas
A standalone research note by Roberto Bodegas, outside the monthly publication.
Open PDF
Research Team
The research team, in full.
Twelve analysts from the University of Reading and Henley Business School. The team is responsible for the monthly publication and every case competition submission.
- JP Ornellas FilhoPresident3rd Year Economics
- Adam QureshiHead of Research3rd Year Economics & Finance
- Giacomo VolpeDeputy Head of ResearchMSc Corporate Finance
- Safeer HussainSenior Research Associate2nd Year Economics
- Roberto BodegasResearch Associate3rd Year Business & Management
- Shubham DesaiResearch AssociateMSc Finance
- Matthew AdebiyiResearch AssociateMSc Finance
- Ameya BhateResearch AnalystMSc Finance
- Jonathan BelloResearch Analyst3rd Year Investments
- Yifu MeiResearch AnalystMSc Corporate Finance
- Rohan MehtaResearch AnalystMSc Finance
- Atharva DeshmukhResearch AnalystMSc Finance
Third Place · UK & Europe M&A Case Competition 2026
Our pitch on Mastercard’s acquisition of OneSpan Inc.
Five members of the research team built a full synergies model. That covered revenue uplift across identity, authentication and open banking, plus base, upside and downside cases on cost take-out. We then defended the whole thing in front of judges from Nomura, PJT Partners, Neuberger Berman and BGF.
The society placed third of 120+ teams, in a finals field drawn from Oxford, LSE, UCL and Católica Lisbon. The underlying work, from the synergies model to the strategic rationale and the transaction structure, is documented in both the March 2026 newsletter and the full pitch deck below.
The Team
- Giacomo VolpeProject Lead
- Adam QureshiAnalyst
- Safeer HussainAnalyst
- Jonathan BelloAnalyst
- Ameya BhateAnalyst
Events & Partnerships · 06
Speakers, competitions, partners.
Three standing programmes that run across the academic year: speakers, competitions, and partnerships.
01 / 03
Speakers
Senior-figure fireside chats. Tim Jones, formerly a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank and an Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan, joined us in March 2026. A few more speakers are lined up for the rest of the year.
Programme
02 / 03
Competitions
The Winter CapitOx M&A Competition, the CME Futures Trading Challenge, and the UK & Europe M&A Case Competition. More entries are already lined up for 2026/27.
Programme
03 / 03
Partnerships
Joint events with the Entrepreneurship Society (Meet the Investors, the Football Jersey Social) and the Consulting Society (the Tim Jones fireside chat).
Programme
Gallery · 07
The year in pictures.
A few moments from across the academic year. Speaker events, the delegation to the Warwick Economics Summit, and the finals of the UK & Europe M&A Case Competition.
Committee · 08
The Executive Committee.
Five students from Economics, Biochemistry, and Accounting and Management. Between them they look after events, publications, finance, and member welfare.
JP Ornellas Filho
3rd Year Economics
LinkedIn
Mikhaail Anawar
3rd Year Biochemistry
LinkedIn
Dexter Chant
3rd Year Accounting & Management
LinkedIn
Matt Mead
3rd Year Economics
LinkedIn
Faidra Karasavvidi
2nd Year Business Economics
LinkedInThe research team is separate. Twelve analysts working under the Head and Deputy Head of Research.
Meet the full research teamAll committee & research →Contact · 09
Join the society.
Anyone at Reading can join through the Students’ Union. For any other questions, get in touch with us directly.
Where to find us
- UniversityUniversity of Reading
- Faculty linkHenley Business School
- SU pagereadingsu.co.uk
- Domainuormanda.com