Goldman Sachs and Houlihan Lokey were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers in North America for 2021 by value and volume, respectively. Goldman Sachs advised on 293 deals worth $736.1bn, which was the highest value among all the advisers. Meanwhile, Houlihan Lokey led in volume terms having advised on 303 deals worth $82.9bn. A total of 16,494 M&A deals were announced in the region during 2021, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s report, ‘Global and North America M&A Report Financial Adviser League Tables 2021’, deal value for the region increased by 62.6% from $1.2 trillion during 2020 to $2 trillion during 2021.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Goldman Sachs was the clear winner by value as it was the only firm to advise on deals worth more than US$700bn. The firm advised on 126 billion-dollar deals (valued more than or equal to $1bn) that also included 17 mega deals valued more than or equal to $10bn.

“Meanwhile, Houlihan Lokey though led in terms of volume but faced very close competition. The closest competitor by this metric was JP Morgan, which was only one deal behind Houlihan Lokey while Goldman Sachs was also not too far behind and fell short of just 10 deals. Houlihan Lokey also did not find a place in the top 10 list by value.”

JP Morgan occupied the second position in terms of value with 302 deals worth $601.7bn, followed by Morgan Stanley with 194 deals worth $503.4bn, Bank of America with 179 deals worth $407.5bn and Barclays with 177 deals worth $351.7bn.

JP Morgan also occupied the second position in terms of volume followed by Goldman Sachs. Jefferies occupied the fourth position by volume with 216 deals worth $116.1bn followed by Raymond James Financial with 208 deals worth $26bn.