The Group was founded in April 2025. This page covers our first academic year: the timeline, our programmes, photos, and the 2025/26 committee and research team. Every issue we published is in the research archive.
Of 120+ teams · UK & Europe M&A Finals
3rd
Issues published
9
Events in the first year
9+
LinkedIn impressions on the newsletter
16,000+
Timeline · 01
Key events, 2025/26.
Events and publications from our first year, most recent first.
Jul 2026Research
Special edition · SpaceX One Month On
A summer special edition on SpaceX's first month as a public company and its $60B acquisition of Anysphere, compared against Saudi Aramco's listing.
01 / 12
19–20 Jun 2026Outreach
University Open Days
Represented the Group at the University of Reading Open Days, speaking with prospective undergraduate and master's students.
02 / 12
26 Mar 2026Speaker
Fireside chat with Tim Jones
Former Managing Director at Deutsche Bank, former Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan. Joint event with the Consulting Society.
03 / 12
24 Mar 2026Research
Pitch walkthrough · Mastercard / OneSpan
The Group's third-place pitch deck presented back to members.
04 / 12
17 Mar 2026Partnership
Meet the Investors
VC and private equity panel, hosted in partnership with the Entrepreneurship Society.
05 / 12
12 Mar 2026Competition
Third place · UK & Europe M&A Finals
UK & Europe M&A Case Competition finals. Third of 120+ teams. The field was Oxford, LSE, UCL and Católica Lisbon, with Oxford and LSE placing ahead of us.
06 / 12
17 Feb 2026Competition
Futures Trading Challenge
In-house competition on the CME Group platform.
07 / 12
6–8 Feb 2026Delegation
Warwick Economics Summit
Group delegation attended corporate seminars and senior-figure panels at WES 2026.
08 / 12
27 Nov 2025Competition
Winter CapitOx · ASML / PDF Solutions
A walkthrough of our Winter CapitOx submission on ASML's acquisition of PDF Solutions.
09 / 12
20 Nov 2025Partnership
Football Jersey Social
Joint social with the Entrepreneurship Society.
10 / 12
23 Oct 2025Event
Introductory event
Opening briefing to the membership. We walked through the research agenda, the calendar, and how the year would be structured.
11 / 12
Apr 2025Founding
Founded
The University of Reading Mergers & Acquisitions Group is established.
12 / 12
Programmes · 02
Speakers, competitions, partners.
The three standing programmes we ran across our first 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.
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 · 03
Photos, 2025/26.
Photos from the 2025/26 academic year: speaker events, the Warwick Economics Summit delegation, and the finals of the UK & Europe M&A Case Competition.
