UBS M&A revenues up on landmark deals

Global M&A volume was up 39% to $1.4 trillion in the first half of the year. However, revenues only increased 13%, further evidence of the fact that M&A advisory is not the guaranteed meal ticket it used to be.

According to first-half data by Dealogic, UBS increased its global advisory revenues the most over the period, with realized fees from deals announced or completed up by 50% during the first six months of 2005. It also advised on the two biggest deals of the first half of the year. It was sole adviser to MBNA on its $35 billion announced takeover by Bank of America and was also joint adviser with Gillette on its $56.8 billion deal by Procter & Gamble. Lehman Brothers, KPMG and ABN Amro posted the biggest percentage decline in revenues over the same period (see table). Morgan Stanley reported the smallest percentage revenue gain out of the top-ranked players.

However, according to Dealogic, Morgan Stanley also has one of the biggest global backlogs of fees pending from transactions announced over the past two years. The estimated deal value is $585 billion.