Brunswick Group regained the top slot for U.S. M&A PR advisors through Q3 by deal value, while Kekst and Company remained in the lead for deals by volume as the M&A market slumped during the period, according to a quarterly report by mergermarket.
The research firm reported U.S. deals hit $512.1B from Q1 to Q3, a decline of 18.6% for the same period of 2011, although Q3 of 2012 was up over Q2 by 11.7%. Globally, M&A activity in Q3 was down 16.1% to $461B over Q2, and down 17.4% for the first three quarters over 2011.
Brunswick edged Q2 deal value leader Sard Verbinnen & Co in the U.S. in working 65 transactions totaling more than $118.5B. Sard handled 81 deals worth $107.6B.
Brunswick worked the year’s largest U.S. transaction to date, Kraft’s spinoff of its snack business as Mondelez International, a $26.3B deal which was the second largest in the world this year.
Source: mergermarket |
Kekst was the U.S. M&A PR workhorse in counseling 86 deals through Q3.
Brunswick was the global deal value leader, as well, with its work on 130 transactions totaling $180.8B. FTI Consulting topped the volume charts with 153 deals through Q3.
The top five global M&A PR firms by value were Brunswick, RLM Finsbury, Sard Verbinnen, FTI and Kekst. RLM Finsbury counseled Glencore International in its $50.6B acquisition of Xstrata, which worked with FTI, Stockwell Comms. and Aura Financial in the largest global M&A deal to date for 2012.
By volume, the top global firms were FTI, Brunswick, Kekst, Sard Verbinnen, and Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher.
Download the full Q3 report (PDF).