Morgan Stanley and Ernst & Young (EY) have emerged as the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers in the Asia-Pacific region during the first half (H1) of 2020, based on deal value and volume, respectively, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Morgan Stanley advised on 24 deals worth US$25.3bn, which was the highest among all the advisers. JP Morgan occupied the second position by value with 14 deals worth US$24.4bn, followed by Deloitte with 13 deals worth US$16.5bn.

Ernst & Young led in volume terms having advised on 32 deals worth US$2.7bn during H1. Morgan Stanley occupied the second position by volume, followed by Nomura with 22 deals worth US$9.6bn, according to GlobalData.

Aurojyoti Bose, Financial Deals Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Morgan Stanley, apart from leading in value terms, also fared well in volume terms. In contrast, Ernst & Young, despite leading in volume terms, failed to make it to the list of top 10 advisers by value due to its involvement mostly in low-value transactions.

“Interestingly, advisers such as Quant Group and ANZ also featured in the list of top 10 advisers by value, despite advising on one deal each.”

Asia-Pacific deal landscape in H1 2020

Deal activity in Asia-Pacific remained relatively resilient compared to other regions during the COVID-19 hit H1 2020. The number of deals announced in the region year-on-year increased by 11.3% from 5,640 in H1 2019 to 6,278 in H1 2020, according to GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database. Deal value also increased by 4.1% from US$255.9bn in H1 2019 to US$266.4bn in H1 2020.

Morgan Stanley, which topped the Asia-Pacific deals league table by value, stood at third 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 Asia-Pacific league table by volume, also occupied the top position (by volume) in the global league table.