Morgan Stanley and Houlihan Lokey have emerged as the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers by value and volume during 2025 in the latest Financial Advisers League Table by GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that Morgan Stanley achieved the leading position in terms of the deal value by advising on $872.7 billion worth of deals. Meanwhile, Houlihan Lokey led in terms of volume by advising on a total of 318 deals.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “More than one-third of the total number of deals advised by Morgan Stanley during 2025 were billion-dollar deals, and the involvement in these big-ticket deals helped it secure the top spot. Out of the 118 billion-dollar deals*, 18 were mega deals valued at or more than $10 billion. Apart from leading by value, the global financial services firm also held the second position by volume with 295 deals.

“Meanwhile, Houlihan Lokey was the top adviser by volume in 2024 and managed to retain its leadership position by this metric in 2025 as well. Moreover, the investment bank was the only adviser with more than 300 deals during the review period.”

JPMorgan occupied the second position in terms of value, by advising on $840.7 billion worth of deals, followed by Goldman Sachs with $690.2 billion, Evercore with $514 billion, and Bank of America with $485.8 billion.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan occupied the third position in terms of volume by advising on 234 deals, followed by Goldman Sachs with 223 deals, and Rothschild & Co with 171 deals.

*Deals valued ≥ $1 billion