In a weak but improving first half for merger activity, Sard Verbinnen & Co and Kekst and Company were the top U.S. M&A PR advisors in the first half of 2012 by deal value and volume, respectively, according to mergermarket.
Sard edged out first-quarter volume leader Brunswick Group.
Source: mergermarket |
Although global M&A activity picked up in the second quarter to break a string of five straight quarterly declines, the U.S. recorded the lowest half-year total – $290.6B – since 2003.
Brunswick Group continued to lead global M&A PR advisors handling deals worth $122.6B during the first two quarters of 2012, while FTI Consulting advised the most transactions globally with 97 deals.
Vaulting Sard Verbinnen up the charts in the U.S. was its work for Sunoco in the company's nearly $7B acquisition by Energy Transfer Partners (Brunswick), and Sard's counseling of Illumina as it was bought for $6.8B by Roche Holding (Brunswick), among other deals with Gavilon and Pentair.
A handful of firms entered the top 10 by advising a few deals with large price tags. Maitland, which handled only eight deals during the half, landed at No. 6 by value, while Rubenstein Associates (five deals) and Capital MSL (4) followed at Nos. 7 and 8, respectively.
Sard was followed by Brunswick ($74.1B), Kekst ($53.6B), Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher ($37.6B) and Abernathy MacGregor ($25.4B) in the top five by deal value.
Kekst's 62 U.S. deals were trailed by Sard (49), Joele Frank (43), Brunswick (42) and Abernathy MacGregor (37), FTI Consulting (34), and Owen Blicksilver (21).
RLM Finsbury led European PR advisors with deals with $95.6B, while FTI led in numbers with 73 transactions for the first half.
Mergermarket said global M&A activity of $968.5B was down 18.3% in the first half compared with 2011.