Goldman Sachs and Houlihan Lokey have emerged as the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers by value and volume for H1 2023 in the latest Financial Advisers League Table by GlobalData, which ranks financial advisers by the respective value and volume of M&A deals on which they advised.

Based on its Financial Deals Database, the leading data and analytics company has revealed that Goldman Sachs achieved its leading position in the deal value rankings by advising on $209.3 billion worth of deals. Meanwhile, Houlihan Lokey led by volume by advising on a total of 128 deals.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Goldman Sachs, despite a decline in total value of deals advised by it in H1 2023 compared to H1 2022, managed to retain its leadership position by this metric. Moreover, it was the only firm with total deal value surpassing $200 billion in H1 2023. Goldman Sachs advised on 35 billion-dollar deals* of which seven were mega deals valued more than $10 billion. Involvement in such big-ticket deals helped Goldman Sachs top the chart by value.”

“Meanwhile, Houlihan Lokey, despite registering a fall in the number of deals advised by it, managed to improve its ranking by volume and went ahead from occupying the second position in H1 2022 to lead by this metric in H1 2023. However, there was a close competition from Rothschild & Co for the top spot by volume.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that Rothschild & Co occupied the second position in terms of volume by advising on 123 deals followed by PwC with 90 deals, JP Morgan with 85 deals and KPMG with 83 deals.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan occupied the second position in terms of value, by advising on $190.5 billion worth of deals followed by Bank of America with $186.3 billion, Centerview Partners with $133.8 billion and Morgan Stanley with $121.3 billion.

*Deals valued more than or equal to $1 billion