Morgan Stanley emerged as the top financial adviser for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by both value and volume in Asia-Pacific for 2020, having advised on 57 deals worth US$142.6bn. A total 7,621 M&A deals were announced in the region during 2020, marking a 15.6% increase over the 6,594 deals announced in 2019, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s report, ‘Global and Asia-Pacific M&A Report Financial Adviser League Tables 2020’, the total deal value increased by 37% from US$486bn in 2019 to US$666bn in 2020.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Only two firms, Morgan Stanley and Ernst & Young, managed to advise on more than 50 deals. Interestingly, while Morgan Stanley went ahead to occupy the top spot in terms of value, Ernst & Young did not even feature among the top 10 advisors by value.

“Moreover, Morgan Stanley was among the only two firms (the other being Goldman Sachs) in the list of top 10 advisers to surpass US$100bn mark during the COVID-19 hit 2020. Morgan Stanley managed to advise on three mega deals (more than or equal to US$10bn) and its average deal value size stood at US$2.5bn.”

Goldman Sachs occupied the second position by value with 31 deals worth US$105.8bn while Ernst & Young occupied the second position by volume with 55 deals worth US$8bn.

UBS and Nomura occupied third and fourth positions in GlobalData’s table of top M&A financial advisers in Asia-Pacific by value and volume with 44 and 41 deals worth US$87.5bn and US$82.6bn, respectively.