Goldman leads M&A tables
GOLDMAN Sachs is the most sought after financial adviser globally on merger and acquisitions, after landing a role on three mammoth takeover deals last month.
The Wall Street giant pushed its way to the top of Thomson Reuters’ M&A adviser rankings after taking a pole position on the highest valued deals since January.
In that period, Goldmans advised on the lion’s share of mega-value deals after snapping up roles on 234 transactions worth $373.6bn (£242.5bn).
Goldman, along with rivals JP Morgan, advised on BHP Billiton’s $43bn takeover of Canadian owned PotashCorp, which was last month’s largest deal.
JP Morgan also pushed up the rankings into second place as the bank advised on 202 deals valued at $336.1bn during the first eight months of the year.
Both firms scored top roles on Power International’s $25bn merger with GDF Suez Energy and Sanofi-Aventis’ $18bn bid for Genzyme, edging the two banks past rival Morgan Stanley for the top global spot.
Despite advising on 23 more deals than Goldmans, Morgan Stanley fell from the top spot for the first time in seven months to third place after advising on 257 transactions worth $316.8bn.
Meanwhile, August marked a record month for high value deals after worldwide M&A activity totalled $267.2bn, the biggest since 1999 when $274.9bn in deals were completed.
During the same period last year, roughly $127bn in deals were penned as the financial crisis took its toll on confidence amongst the world’s top companies.