Goldman Sachs emerged as the top financial adviser for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by both value and volume in North America for 2020, having advised on 218 deals worth $459.8bn. A total 12,950 M&A deals were announced during 2020, marking a 7.1% decrease over the 13,937 deals announced in 2019, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s report, ‘Global and North America M&A Report Financial Adviser League Tables 2020’, deal value decreased by 14.9% from $1.5 trillion in 2019 to US$1.3 trillion in 2020.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Goldman Sachs was the only firm that managed to advise on more than 200 deals, including eight mega deals, valued more than or equal to $10bn. Involvement in such high-value transactions helped the firm to also occupy the top spot by value.”

Morgan Stanley occupied the second position in GlobalData’s ranking of financial advisers for M&As in North America by value with 148 deals worth $430.9bn, followed by Bank of America with 130 deals worth a total $346.6bn and JP Morgan with 150 deals worth $332.6bn.

Houlihan Lokey occupied the second position by volume with 152 deals worth $34.9bn followed by JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. Goldman Sachs also remained the top adviser both in terms of value and volume in the US – the key North American market.

In Canada, CIBC Capital Markets occupied top spot by value while RBC Capital Markets held the top spot by volume.