Morgan Stanley and Rothschild & Co were the top mergers and acquisition (M&A) financial advisers in Europe for Q1-Q3 2021 by value and volume, respectively, according to GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database. The leading data and analytics company notes that Morgan Stanley advised on 54 deals worth US$232.9bn, which was the highest value among all the advisers, while Rothschild & Co led in terms of volume – having advised on 230 deals worth US$168.3bn. A total of 8,590 M&A deals were announced in the region during Q1-Q3 2021.

According to GlobalData’s report, ‘Global and Europe M&A Report Financial Adviser League Tables Q1-Q3 2021’, deal value for the region increased by 70.8% from US$466bn during Q1-Q3 2020 to US$796bn in Q1-Q3 2021.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Rothschild & Co was the only company to advise on more than 200 deals. It also registered a 72.9% year-on-year (YoY) volume growth. Despite this healthy growth, the company failed to secure a position among the top three financial advisers in terms of value and had to settle for fourth place instead.

“GlobalData’s study shows that companies that advise on high-value transactions such as billion-dollar deals (valued more than or equal to US$1bn) and mega deals (valued more than or equal to US$10bn) are most likely to secure the top spots by value. For instance, Morgan Stanley secured the top spot by value due to its involvement in 35 billion-dollar deals, which also included six mega deals. Similarly, Goldman Sachs, which occupied the second spot by value, advised on 48 billion-dollar deals, out of which four were mega deals.”

Goldman Sachs occupied the second position in terms of value with 90 deals worth US$232.7bn, followed by JP Morgan with 107 deals worth US$229.9bn. Rothschild & Co occupied the fourth position by value, followed by Bank of America with 35 deals worth US$141.7bn.

PwC occupied the second position in terms of volume with 190 deals worth US$27.9bn, followed by Ernst & Young with 163 deals worth US$17bn and KPMG with 152 deals worth US$14.1bn. JP Morgan ranked fifth in volume terms.