North America's best bank for advisory 2019: Goldman Sachs

Advising companies that are looking to merge with or buy others is becoming more complicated. Shareholder activists are on the war path, proxy firms are more vocal, deal jumps are getting more frequent – interlopers are all over the place. For navigating these and other challenges with typical aplomb, Goldman Sachs is our choice for North America’s best bank for advisory.

That Goldman leads all-comers by some margin in announced and completed M&A in North America is hardly news. In the period under review for this award category, the firm had market shares of 41% in announced and 39% in completed for all deals with any US or Canadian involvement, putting it respectively 10 and six percentage points ahead of its nearest rivals.

“We shine on the complicated deals, especially where there are cross-border elements or contested situations,” says David ‘Dusty’ Philip, co-head of global M&A. The firm has long prided itself on its strength in defence advisory, as well as its ability to look through a situation to a less obvious solution.