JP Morgan has topped the latest mergers and acquisitions (M&A) league table of the top 10 financial advisers in the construction sector based on deal value in the first half (H1) of 2019, according to GlobalData, a leading data analytics company.

JP Morgan left behind its counterparts Rothschild & Co, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch to lead the table with 14 deals worth US$19.6bn.

According to GlobalData, which tracks all M&A, private equity/venture capital and asset transaction activity around the world to compile the league tables, Rothschild & Co occupied second position with eight transactions worth US$9.9bn, followed by Morgan Stanley with six transactions worth US$7.2bn.

Ravi Tokala, Financial Deals Analyst at GlobalData, says: “The absence of big ticket deals and less than 20 deals crossing US$1bn value in the construction sector in H1 2019 led to a major drop in deal value as compared with H1 2018, even though the year-on-year overall deal volume slightly increased by 2.9%.”

Global construction deals market in H1 2019

The construction sector saw a decline in the value of deals in H1 2019 when compared with H1 2018. The overall deal value plunged by 66.2% from US$254.1bn in H1 2018 to US$85.9bn in H1 2019. However, deal volume increased by 2.9% from 1,260 to 1,296.

JP Morgan, which led the sector table with 144 deals worth US$659.8bn, took the second top spot in GlobalData’s recently released global league table of top 20 M&A financial advisers.

WongPartnership leads top 10 M&A legal advisers list

Singapore-based WongPartnership topped the list of top 10 legal advisers by value with four deals worth US$8.1bn. Although the deals Allen & Gledhill advised on were also worth US$8.1bn, the former gained an edge in the ranking due to superior deal volume. The six top firms in the sector table were conspicuous by their absence in the global league table of top 20 M&A legal advisers. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which secured seventh position in the sector table, was ranked tenth in the global list. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz occupied first position with 36 deals worth US$528.1bn in the global list.