Morgan Stanley had another great year in mergers and acquisition advising on $1 trillion of completed M&A in our awards period, working on 297 transactions worldwide, including seven of the 10 largest.
It sits second in the global adviser league tables by value, just behind Goldman Sachs and ahead of JPMorgan, both of which worked on more transactions. Goldman has been hiring scores of bankers for mid-market M&A, which is also a natural for JPMorgan given its branch network.
Morgan Stanley focuses on fewer, larger deals that are often complex and transformational.
Shortlisted
It lead advised AbbVie on its $86.6 billion acquisition of Allergan and United Technologies on its $36 billion merger with Raytheon.