Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers in the global financial services sector in the first half (H1) of 2020 based on deal value and volume, respectively. Morgan Stanley advised on 16 deals worth US$67bn, which was the highest among all advisers, while JP Morgan led in volume terms having advised on 20 deals worth US$31.6bn, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Aurojyoti Bose, Financial Deals Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Competition was fierce among Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan and Rothschild & Co for the top position, as these were the only five advisers with double-digit deal volume and deal value over US$10bn.
“Interestingly, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan both advised on some of the same big-ticket deals such as the acquisition of E*TRADE Financial by Morgan Stanley for US$13bn and Franklin Resources’ acquisition of Legg Mason for US$6.5bn. However, Morgan Stanley’s involvement in the US$33.4bn Aon-Willis Towers Watson merger deal helped the firm secure the top spot by value.”
Goldman Sachs occupied the second position by value with 13 deals worth US$65.1bn, followed by Bank of America with 15 deals worth US$52.2bn. Morgan Stanley occupied second position by volume, followed by Bank of America.
The number of deals announced in the global financial services sector decreased by 10.4% from 2,227 in H1 2019 to 1,996 in H1 2020, according to GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database. Deal value also decreased by 10.5% from US$206.1bn in H1 2019 to US$184.5bn in H1 2020. The subdued deal activity could be attributed to volatile market conditions due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Morgan Stanley, which topped the financial services sector deals league table by value, stood at third position (by value) in GlobalData’s recently released global league table of top 20 M&A financial advisers. Similarly, JP Morgan, which topped the financial services sector league table by volume, occupied fourth position (by volume) in the global league table.
