Allens and Khaitan were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal advisers in Asia-Pacific for 2021 by value and volume, respectively. Allens advised on 38 deals worth $88.9bn, the highest among all the advisers. Meanwhile, Khaitan led in volume terms with 116 deals worth $21.7bn. A total of 7,807 M&A deals were announced in the region during 2021, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s report, ‘Global and Asia-Pacific M&A Report Legal Adviser League Tables 2021’, deal value for the region decreased by 5.7% from $0.7 trillion during 2020 to $0.6 trillion during 2021.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Khaitan was the only firm to advise on more than 100 deals during 2021. However, despite leading by volume, Khaitan lagged many of its peers in terms of deal value. Surprisingly, it also did not feature among the top 10 advisors by value.”

In contrast, Allens, which advised on relatively fewer but big-ticket deals, managed to top the list by value. The firm advised on 13 billion-dollar deals (valued more than or equal to $1bn) that also included three mega deals valued more than $10bn. Meanwhile, Khaitan advised on three billion-dollar deals.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that Herbert Smith Freehills occupied the second position in terms of value with 69 deals worth $87.2bn, followed by Gilbert + Tobin with 45 deals worth $46.7bn, Dechert with 12 deals worth $39.7bn and Jones Day with 19 deals worth $38.4bn.

AZB & Partners occupied the second position in terms of volume with 80 deals worth $32.5bn, followed by Herbert Smith Freehills and Gilbert + Tobin. HWL Ebsworth Lawyers occupied the fifth position by volume with 44 deals worth $2bn.