Goldman Sachs was the top financial adviser for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals by both deal value and volume for Q1–Q3 2020, having advised on 197 deals worth US$405.8bn, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Aurojyoti Bose, Financial Deals Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Goldman Sachs’ involvement in big-ticket deals helped the firm top the list. The firm advised on 64 billion-dollar deals worth greater than or equal to US$1bn, out of which nine were megadeals worth greater than or equal to US$10bn.”

“While the COVID-19 pandemic affected deal-making during 2020, Goldman Sachs was also the only adviser that managed to surpass the US$400bn mark as deal value for nine of the top 20 advisers (by value) was even less than US$100bn. In fact, deal value for three of the top 20 advisers by volume failed to cross US$10bn.”

Morgan Stanley occupied second position by value with 161 deals worth US$388.1bn, followed by JP Morgan with 154 deals worth US$275.7bn and Bank of America with 129 deals worth US$227.9bn.

Ernst & Young occupied the second position by volume with 190 deals worth US$40.9bn, followed by Rothschild & Co with 170 deals worth US$113.2bn and PwC with 170 worth US$25.6bn.

Involvement in big ticket deals remain the key as Rothschild & Co also occupied the 11th rank by value, while surprisingly PwC did not even feature among the top 20 advisers by value despite both the firms advising on the same number of deals.

During Q1–Q3 2020, 39,160 deals were announced globally, marking a 11.2% decrease over 44,080 deals during the same period in 2019, according to GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database. Deal value decreased by 20.7% from US$2,632.4bn in Q1–Q3 2019 to US$2,086.5bn in Q1–Q3 2020.