Goldman Sachs and Houlihan Lokey have emerged as the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers by value and volume, respectively, during the first quarter (Q1) of 2026 in the latest Financial Advisers League Table by GlobalData, which ranks financial advisers by the value and volume of M&A deals on which they advised.

Based on its Financial Deals Database, the leading intelligence and productivity platform revealed that Goldman Sachs achieved its leading position in the deal value rankings by advising on $267 billion worth of deals. Meanwhile, Houlihan Lokey led in terms of volume by advising on a total of 76 deals.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Despite a drop in the total number of deals advised by Goldman Sachs during Q1 2026 compared to Q1 2025, the corresponding value almost doubled due to its involvement in big-ticket deals. Resultantly, it went ahead from occupying the second position by value in Q1 2025 to top the chart by this metric in Q1 2026. More than half of the total number of deals advised by Goldman Sachs during Q1 2026 were billion-dollar deals*. During the quarter, it advised on 27 billion-dollar deals that also included seven mega deals valued more than $10 billion.

“Meanwhile. Houlihan Lokey was the top adviser by volume in Q1 2025 and managed to retain its leadership position by this metric in Q1 2026 as well.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that Morgan Stanley occupied the second position in terms of value, by advising on $210.3 billion worth of deals followed by JPMorgan with $207.1 billion, Evercore with $131.6 billion, and Citi with $112.8 billion.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley occupied the second position in terms of volume by advising on 60 deals followed by Goldman Sachs with 49 deals, JPMorgan with 47 deals, and Evercore with 42 deals.

*Deals valued more than or equal to $1 billion