BMO Capital Markets was the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial adviser in the global mining sector for 2020 by value, having advised on 13 deals worth $4.8bn. Meanwhile, Canaccord Genuity Group was the top M&A financial advisor by volume, having advised on 14 deals worth $2.9bn. A total 1,712 M&A deals were announced in the sector during 2020, marking a 33.8% increase over the 1,280 deals announced in 2019, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s report, ‘Global and Metals & Mining M&A Report Financial Adviser League Tables 2020’, deal value decreased by 12.3% from $65bn in 2019 to $57bn in 2020.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “BMO Capital Markets and Canaccord Genuity Group were the only two firms that managed to see double-digit deal volume during COVID-19-hit 2020. BMO Capital Markets occupied the second position by volume, but, surprisingly, Canaccord Genuity Group failed to find a place in the list of top ten advisors by value due to its involvement in largely low-value transactions.

“While the average deal size for BMO Capital Markets stood at $367.2m, it was much lesser and stood at US$2019.1m for Canaccord Genuity Group, despite the latter advising on relatively more number of deals.”

The Bank of Nova Scotia occupied the second position in GlobalData’s ranking of financial advisers for M&As in the global mining sector by value with nine deals worth $4.7bn. This was followed by Macquarie and Sternship Advisers with three deals each worth $4.3bn and $4.2bn respectively.

The Bank of Nova Scotia also occupied third position by volume followed by RBC Capital Markets with nine deals worth $2.2bn.