By Greg Hazley
Kekst and Company and Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher were the top M&A PR advisors by number of deals and value in North America, respectively, during the first half of 2010, according to research firm mergermarket.
Source: mergermarket |
Kekst advised 48 deals during the first half, followed by Abernathy MacGregor Group (42), Joele Frank (41), FD (34) and Sard Verbinnen & Co. (33).
Those five firms also topped last year’s first half ranking, albeit in different sequence with Kekst at the top.
In the first half, Kekst worked with AIG in MetLife’s $15.5 billion acquisition of its American Life Insurance Company, investment firm Metropoulos in its pursuit of Pabst Brewing Company, and played a role in the blockbuster United-Continental merger.
Measured by value, mergermarket found that JFWBK handled deals worth $84.5B during the period, followed SV&C ($65.2B), Kekst ($62.3B), Brunswick Group ($38.5B) and AMG ($24.4B).
JFWBK’s lead in deal value will get a boost from its role in this week’s assignment handling the $39 billion attempted takeover of Potash Corp.
AMG vaulted into the top 5 from No. 8 last year as ranked by value of deals by taking FD’s No. 5 slot from 2009. FD was sixth this year with deals valued at $24.3B.
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