Goldman Sachs and Houlihan Lokey have emerged as the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers by value and volume, respectively, for 2024 in the latest Financial Advisers League Table, which ranks financial advisers by the value and volume of M&A deals on which they advised, by GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Deals Database has revealed that Goldman Sachs achieved its leading position in the deal value rankings by advising on $417.8 billion worth of deals. Meanwhile, Houlihan Lokey led in terms of volume by advising on a total of 296 deals.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Goldman Sachs was the top adviser by value in 2023 and also managed to retain its leadership position by this metric in 2024 as well. Although it registered a year-on-year decline in value, Goldman Sachs still remained much ahead of its peers due to its involvement in big-ticket deals. In 2024, Goldman Sachs advised on 88 billion-dollar deals*, of which nine were mega deals valued more than $10 billion.

“Meanwhile, Houlihan Lokey registered a growth in the total number of deals advised by it in during 2024 compared to the previous year. Resultantly, it went ahead from occupying the second position by volume in 2023 to top the chart by this metric in 2024. In fact, it outpaced its peers by a significant margin and just fell short of only four deals to hit the 300-deal volume mark during the year.”

Rothschild & Co occupied the second position in terms of volume by advising on 186 deals, followed by Goldman Sachs with 179 deals, UBS with 166 deals, and JP Morgan with 161 deals.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan occupied the second position in terms of value, by advising on $366.6 billion worth of deals, followed by Morgan Stanley with $349.7 billion, Barclays with $233.9 billion, and Citi with $227.3 billion.

*Deals valued more than or equal to $1 billion