Goldman Sachs and Piper Sandler were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers in the financial services sector for Q1-Q3 2021 by value and volume, respectively. Goldman Sachs advised on 59 deals worth US$99.5bn, which was the highest value among all the advisers. Meanwhile, Piper Sandler led in volume terms having advised on 60 deals worth US$29.4bn. A total of 2,804 M&A deals were announced in the sector during Q1-Q3 2021, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s report, ‘Global and Financial Services M&A Report Financial Adviser League Tables Q1-Q3 2021’, deal value for the region increased by 55.9% from US$272bn during Q1-Q3 2020 to US$424bn during Q1-Q3 2021.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Although Goldman Sachs experienced tough competition in terms of deal volume, the firm was way ahead by value due to its involvement in several big-ticket deals. In fact, Goldman Sachs was the only financial adviser that managed to advise on deals that were just shy of US$100bn during Q1-Q3 2021, thereby outpacing its peers by a significant margin. The firm advised on 24 deals valued more than or equal to $1bn, which also included one mega deal valued more than or equal to $10bn.”

JP Morgan occupied the second position in terms of value with 58 deals worth US$68.6bn, followed by Morgan Stanley with 28 deals worth US$61bn, Lazard with 15 deals worth US$41.2bn and Stifel/KBW with 49 deals worth US$35.2bn.

Goldman Sachs occupied the second position in terms of volume, followed by JP Morgan and Stifel/KBW. Rothschild & Co occupied the fifth position by volume with 43 deals worth US$19.3bn.