Goldman slips to tenth in M&A League
Goldman Sachs made its worst showing in US deal advisory rankings in more than two decades, sliding to 10th place in the first quarter of this year.
While deal rankings can move around dramatically each quarter, it is still embarrassing for Wall Street’s premier bank to have fallen in the pecking order.
League tables are closely followed by bankers who compete hard for lucrative assignments advising companies on mergers and acquisitions.
Goldman advised on $71bn (£44bn) worth of US deals in the first quarter, far less than JPMorgan Chase & Co’s chart-topping $170bn, and even lower than much smaller banks such as Rothschild, Evercore Partners Inc and Lazard Ltd .
It is Goldman’s lowest quarterly ranking since Thomson Reuters began tracking US M&A deals in 1990. The drop mainly reflects the firm’s advisory absence from two mega deals: AT&T Inc’s $39bn deal for T-Mobile USA and the $59bn restructuring of insurer American International Group Inc .
“The numbers are an example of the lumpiness of the business, particularly when you get the mega-deals,” said Michael Holland, chairman of New York-based money manager Holland & Co.
Goldman Sachs, typically in the top three in these tables, missed out on the T-Mobile USA deal because it was advising Sprint Nextel Corp , a source familiar with the matter previously told Reuters. Sprint also held talks to merge with T-Mobile.