Linklaters and Blake Cassels & Graydon were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal advisers in the global mining sector for 2020 by value and volume, respectively. Linklaters advised on six deals worth US$6.4bn, which was the highest among all the advisers. Meanwhile, Blake Cassels & Graydon led in volume terms having advised on 16 deals worth US$3.2bn. A total of 1,712 M&A deals were announced in the mining sector during 2020, marking a 33.8% increase over the 1,280 deals announced in 2019, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s report, ‘Global and Metals & Mining M&A Report Legal Adviser League Tables 2020’, deal value decreased by 12.3% from US$65bn in 2019 to US$57bn in 2020.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Blake Cassels & Graydon, despite advising on more than double the number of deals, lost the top position by value to Linklaters and occupied tenth position in the ranking of top ten advisors by value due to its involvement in low value transactions.

“While Linklaters advised on six deals, two of them were worth more than or equal to US$1bn. Blake Cassels & Graydon, on the other hand, managed to advise only on a single deal that was worth more than or equal to US$1bn.”

Although Jones Day also advised on the same number of deals as Linklaters, the firm’s transactions were worth US$5.9bn, meaning that it had to settle for the second position by value in GlobalData’s ranking of legal advisers for M&As in the global mining sector. It was followed by McCarthy Tetrault with 11 deals worth US$5.4bn and DLA Piper with eight deals worth US$5.4bn.

Cassels Brock & Blackwell occupied second position by volume with 12 deals worth US$1bn, followed by McCarthy Tetrault.