Goldman Sachs and Itau Unibanco were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers in South & Central America for 2020 by value and volume, respectively. Goldman Sachs advised on ten deals worth $9.6bn, which was the highest among all advisers. Meanwhile, Itau Unibanco led in volume terms having advised on 12 deals worth $7.1bn. A total 997 M&A deals were announced in the region during 2020, marking a 22.2% decrease over the 1,282 deals announced in 2019, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s report, ‘Global and South & Central America M&A Report Financial Adviser League Tables 2020’, deal value decreased by 30.3% from $99bn in 2019 to $69bn in 2020.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Goldman Sachs and Itau Unibanco were among the only three advisors (the other being BR Partners) to touch double-digit deal volume during 2020 and occupied the top spots by volume. Moreover, there was also close competition for the top spot by value – as all these three firms managed to advise on some billion-dollar deals valued more than or equal to $1bn.

“While Itau Unibanco and BR Partners advised on three billion-dollar deals, Goldman Sachs was able to advise on four such deals, which helped it snatch the top spot by value.”

Bank of America occupied the fourth position in GlobalData’s ranking of financial advisers for M&As in South & Central America by value and volume with eight deals worth $6.4bn.