Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Jones Day were noted to be the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal advisers in the global retail sector in the first half (H1) of 2020, based on deal value and volume, respectively. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised on six deals worth US$12.66bn, which was the highest among all the advisers. Meanwhile, Jones Day led in volume terms having advised on ten deals worth US$144.65m during H1, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Aurojyoti Bose, Financial Deals Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Jones Day was the only firm to advise on double-digit deal volume but surprisingly it did not even feature among the top ten advisers by value. There was a wide disparity in deal value between the top adviser by value and volume. Meanwhile, the average deal size for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer stood at US$2.1bn, it was just US$14.47m for Jones Day. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s involvement in big-ticket deals such as Charoen Pokphand Group’s acquisition of Tesco’s operations in Thailand and Malaysia for US$10.6bn helped it secure the top position by value, while Jones Day lagged behind due to involvement in low-value transactions.”

Allen & Overy occupied the second position by value with five deals worth US$12.12bn followed by Linklaters with four deals worth US$12.1bn. CMS occupied the second position by volume with eight deals worth US$93.93m followed by Latham & Watkins with seven deals worth US$899.9m.

Bose adds: “Akin to Jones Day, these two firms also failed to make it to the list of top ten advisers by value.”

The number of deals announced in the global retail sector decreased by 20.26% from 1,239 in H1 2019 to 988 in H1 2020, according to GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database. Despite decline in volume, deal value increased by 7.96% from US$45.97bn in H1 2019 to US$49.63bn in H1 2020.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which topped the retail sector deals league table by value, also stood at the topposition (by value) in the recently released global league table of top 20 M&A legal advisers by GlobalData. Similarly, Jones Day, which topped the retail sector league table by volume, occupied the second position (by volume) in the global league table.