The UK Investment Banking Series was founded by the finance societies at three top London universities; University College London, London School of Economics and Imperial College London, consisting of two parts, an M&A Challenge and a Trading Challenge.
UIBS 2010 was a resounding success, attracting nearly a thousand applicants from fifteen different universities across the country and sponsorship from leading firms including J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, UBS, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and RBS.
In its first year, UIBS brought together ten teams for the M&A Challenge and twenty teams for the Trading Challenge to compete not only for recognition in a national competition, but also for a total of £3000 of prize money.

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The first ever national M&A case study competition took place on 13th November, 2010, at the London School of Economics, in partnership with Morgan Stanley. Ten teams from universities across the country presented to a panel of Morgan Stanley representatives about the assigned case study, centred on recommending an acquisition target for H. J. Heinz Company.

The case study was as follows:

Your team will serve as Finance Advisor to the H. J. Heinz Company, the US based global food company
You are requested to:
Evaluate the performance, strategy and competitive position of your client whilst taking into account the risks and opportunities present in the firm’s industry
Choose for your client a potential target
Carry out your own research into publicly available sources of information to address and subsequently present to your client why you advise this deal in a PowerPoint presentation:

Presentations:

Your team will be given information regarding the acquiring firm:

Overview of the Industry
Overview of Recent Transactions
Overview of H. J. Heinz Company – the acquiring firm

Your team is expected to come up with your own target recommendation and to carry out research to support you recommendation
Your presentation should include the following:

Industry overview:
Overview of Acquirer:
Overview of Target:
Valuation of Target: You may use DCF, comparable multiple analysis or both to determine the value of the target and how much you would advise your client to pay
Strategic Analysis / Deal Rationale

The team of Daniel Danev, Yimin Xu, Joon Kyu Park, Yoana Nenova and Sean Lee from the London School of Economics won the UIBS M&A Challenge 2010. A team from the University of Warwick consisting of Surojit Chakraverti, Rianne Schipper, Elizabeth Yambem, Queenie Chia-Hua Kuo and Gustav Högström were awarded second prize.

Daniel Danev, captain of the winning team, commented: “No one has held an M&A competition so far perhaps due to the greater amount of preliminary work needed as opposed to a trading game. The committee of UIBS changed the status quo and they have put a lot of effort in hosting the very first competition of that kind. The support available to the competing teams was excellent and the organization at the day of the competition left little room for improvement” and another participant described the M&A Challenge as "a must participate competition for anyone who wants to aim at working in IBD and also get a clear perspective on valuations, acquisitions and teamwork."

The UIBS Trading Challenge took place on 27th November, 2010, at Imperial College London, in partnership with J.P. Morgan. Twenty teams of aspiring hedge fund and investment bank traders from universities across the country used a unique software platform to compete to make the most profit or earn the most in commission.
The team of Daniel Wen De Lam, Teck Hao Tan, Verity Howells, Kory Lim and Jenny Siu from University College London won the UIBS Trading Challenge 2010. A team from Imperial College London consisting of Justas Bitenas, Stuart Chapman, William Nicklin, Parimal Depala and Stephen Wong were awarded second prize.
Some comments from participants of the Trading Challenge include “it was an amazing experience”; “it was the most realistic trading game I’ve ever participated in” and “I have played similar trading competitions before but this was the best of all.”