GlobalData’s top 20 financial adviser firms

Q2 2018		Q2 2017		Q2 2018
Rank	Adviser name	Value (USD B)	Number of deals	Value (USD B)	Number of deals	Value change (%)
1	Morgan Stanley	103.9	62	464.7	86	0.78
2	Goldman Sachs	226.0	80	405.3	112	0.44
3	JP Morgan	125.9	99	353.2	85	0.64
4	Evercore	49.1	44	232.5	46	0.79
5	Citi	147.0	49	186.3	59	0.21
6	BofA Merrill Lynch	127.6	52	185.4	51	0.31
7	Barclays	54.0	30	150.7	47	0.64
8	Credit Suisse	82.3	55	114.4	42	0.28
9	Deutsche Bank	60.6	33	111.6	34	0.46
10	PJT Partners	16.1	4	107.9	8	0.85
11	Centerview Partners	84.5	42	100.1	17	0.16
12	UBS	27.3	14	99.9	42	0.73
13	Nomura	12.5	14	95.0	26	0.87
14	Lazard Ltd	40.0	70	76.0	65	0.47
15	Raine Group	-	-	75.0	2	-
16	Rothschild	40.4	78	65.3	104	0.38
17	Robey Warshaw	-	-	65.0	3	-
18	Wells Fargo Securities	26.9	15	64.5	14	0.58
19	Sumitomo Mitsui Financial	3.4	11	62.6	13	0.95
20	Mizuho Financial	0.6	3	60.0	12	0.99

A new league table compiled by GlobalData has found that US investment bank Morgan Stanley was top of the tree in terms of deal activity in the second quarter of 2018.

The bank led the top twenty table of financial advisors globally and worked on total deals valued at $464.7bn in the second quarter of 2018.

GlobalData used its tracking of all merger and acquisition, private equity/venture capital and asset transaction activity around the world to compile this league table.

Takeda Pharma’s $80.4bn offer to acquire its bigger rival Shire was the biggest deal in quarter followed by the acquisition of Sprint by T-Mobile US for $59bn and Comcast’s $39.8bn takeover of Sky.

Regarded as the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese company ever, the Takeda-Shire deal has helped Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Evercore Partner and Citi occupy the top five positions in GlobalData’s top 20 list of financial advisors.

With 86 deals, including the top three deals during the quarter, Morgan Stanley witnessed a more than four-fold year-on-year increase in the value of deals which it worked on from $103.8bn to $464bn.

In terms of volume: Goldman Sachs was in the involved in the most and advised on 112 deals during the quarter, followed by Rothschild with 104 deals. The two advisors are ranked 2nd and 16th in value terms, respectively.

GlobalData Financial Deals Analyst Prakhar Baghmar said: “The top three advisers, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, have a significant lead over the rest of the advisors in the list, both from value and volume perspective. Though Rothschild is featured among top three advisors by volume, its non-involvement in some of the big-ticket deals has pushed its ranking down in the league table.”

Raine Group and Robey Warshaw are the two new notable entrants into GlobalData’s top 20 financial advisors league table, despite featuring in just two and three deals respectively. They made their way into the top 20 list, riding on the back of deal values of $75bn and $65bn respectively in Q2 2018.

Neither of the firms advised on any deals tracked by GlobalData in Q2 2017.