Financial advisers Barclays and Ernst & Young (EY) were noted to be the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers in the global power sector in the first half (H1) of 2020, based on deal value and volume, respectively. Barclays advised on six deals worth US$10.4bn, which was the highest among all the advisers. Meanwhile, EY led in volume terms having advised on 16 deals worth US$978m during H1, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Aurojyoti Bose, Financial Deals Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Despite advising on relatively lesser number of deals, Barclays was the only adviser to cross the US$10bn mark in H1 2020, outpacing its peers by a great margin. The firm advised on fewer but higher value deals, which also helped it top the list.

“In contrast, Ernst & Young, which was the only adviser to showcase double-digit deal volume, failed to make it to the list of top ten advisers by value due to involvement in low-value transactions.”

Morgan Stanley occupied the second position by value with two deals worth US$6.5bn followed by Societe Generale with two deals worth US$6.1bn. PwC occupied the second position by volume with eight deals worth US$491.7m followed by Barclays.

The number of deals announced in the global power sector decreased by 30.5% from 1,345 in H1 2019 to 935 in H1 2020, according to GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database. Deal value also decreased by 19.9% from US$109.4bn in H1 2019 to US$87.6bn in H1 2020.

Barclays, which topped the power sector deals league table by value, stood at eighth position (by value) in the recently released global league table of top 20 M&A financial advisers by GlobalData. Similarly, Ernst & Young, which topped the power sector league table by volume, also occupied the topposition (by volume) in the global league table.