Goldman Sachs tops M&A financial advisers list

Oksana Patron

13 January 2023

Goldman Sachs has topped the GlobalData ranking of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers, after having advised $870 billion worth of deals in 2022, despite an overall subdued deal activity in 2022.

Rothschild & Co led in terms of volume by advising on a total of 365 deals last year.

In terms of deal value, Goldman Sachs, which announced earlier this week over 3,000 job cuts from its 49,100 global headcount, was followed by JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley which advised on $626 billion and $464 billion, respectively, worth of deals.

According to GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database, Goldman was the only adviser with more than $800 billion in total deal value, significantly outpacing its peers.

Also, the investment bank participated in 23 mega deals with a total value of $10 billion.

As far as the volume of deals was concerned, Rothschild & Co was followed by Houlihan Lokey and PwC which advised last year on 319 and 235 deals, respectively.

GolbalData’s lead analyst, Aurojyoti Bose, said that all the top 20 advisers by volume saw a decline in 2022 in the total number of deals advised by them in 2022, compared to the prior year.

At the same time, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Kirkland & Ellis secured the top spots by value and volume in 2022, respectively, on the latest Legal Advisers League Table by GlobalData, which ranks legal advisers by the respective value and volume of mergers and acquisition (M&A) deals on which they advised.

“Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Kirkland & Ellis emerged as clear winners, despite suffering a decline in their respective deal value and volume,” Bose said.

“Simpson Thacher & Bartlett was the only adviser that managed to surpass $400 billion in total deal value in 2022. The firm managed to advise on 10 mega deals valued more than $10 billion amid volatile market conditions. Meanwhile, Kirkland & Ellis was the only firm to advise on more than 700 deals.”