Verizon's $124B September acquisition of Vodafone's U.S. wireless business pushed four PR firms to the top of mergermarket's ranking of M&A PR advisors by deal value through the first three quarters of 2013.
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher (No. 1) and RLM Finsbury (No. 4) advised Verizon in the deal, while Abernathy MacGregor (No. 2.) and Maitland (No. 5) worked the Vodafone side.
Brunswick Group (No. 3) rounded out the top five firms by deal value on the strength of its assignments this year for Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital (Heinz), Liberty Global (Virgin Media) and Silver Lake Partners/Michael Dell (Dell Inc.).
FTI Consulting was the top PR advisor by volume globally through Q3, advising 142 deals, ahead of Brunswick (130), Sard Verbinnen & Co (76), Kekst (71) and Citigate (69), according to mergermarket. Full tables are at https://bit.ly/GR7PT1.
Sard was the top PR firm for U.S. deals by number with 72, while Brunswick led the Asia-Pacific region (25), and FTI ruled Europe (113).
Global M&A rose 5.5% for the first three quarters of 2013 over 2012 to top $1.6B, according to mergermarket, which added that the U.S. and Europe both recorded deal values for the first three quarters that were above 2012 levels.
The Verizon deal was the only transaction in the third quarter to make the year's top 10.
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