League tables 2015: the 25 biggest banks & firms in M&A

“Dutch banks win prizes at annual M&A Awards. But American investment banks actually do all the big Dutch deals,” NRC wrote Dec. 10, about the 2015 M&A Awards. This assertion is correct if we look at the league tables. Multinationals don’t know boundaries, literally. For cross border transactions they use advisors which are available globally. This irreversible trend has been going on for a while now in the M&A-world.

 

The largest Dutch acquisition in 2015, that of BG by Shell, (65 billion) finds J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America as M&A advisors. Even in the 10 billion euro-plus dealsof Ahold-Delhaize, JAB-Keurig Green Mountain and NXP-Freescale, it was mainly international investment banks that were allowed to construct the transaction. 

 

	Name	Number of deals	Value (billion €)
1	J.P. Morgan	20	145,834
2	Goldman Sachs	11	135,836
3	Bank of America Merrill Lynch	8	126,873
4	Morgan Stanley	7	40,622
5	Lazard	9	31,841
6	Deutsche Bank	3	25,687
7	HSBC	4	23,922
8	Credit Suisse	3	23,745
9	ING Group	35	12,002
10	Rothschild	11	10,453
11	ABN AMRO	26	9,657
12	Rabobank	24	8,330
13	Aperghis & Co.	4	7,200
14	KPMG	22	2,906
15	Zaoui & Co.	1	2,800
16	Deloitte	18	2,209
17	EY	14	2,069
18	Kempen & Co.	8	1,884
19	NIBC	18	1,881
20	Emendo Capital	4	1,796
21	Citigroup	1	1,750
22	Nomura	1	1,610
23	William Blair	4	1,467
24	Lincoln International	9	1,452
25	BNP Paribas	4	1,436

Although the advisory battle for international mega mergers is definitely won by London and Wall Street (even if this mega merger comes from the Netherlands), the role of Dutch investment banks and advisory firms in the Dutch economy is undiminished.

Dutch dealmakers invariably advise on domestic transactions in SMEs and midcap. Remember that SMEs and mid-cap companies collectively employ the majority of the workforce and account for the majority of total business turnover. 

Top 25 by number of deals
So, apart from those few giga deals, which parties provide structural M&A advice to the corporate and private equity sector during the year? ING Group ranks dead last with 35 deals. Following them are Rabobank/Rembrandt (29) and ABN AMRO (26). KPMG is the first non-bank in the list, followed by Deloitte. The first boutique in the list is Holland Corporate Finance.

	Name	Number of deals	Value (billion €)
1	ING Group	35	12,002
2	Rabobank/Rembrandt*	29	8,355
3	ABN AMRO	26	9,657
4	KPMG	22	2,906
5	J.P. Morgan	20	145,834
6	Deloitte	18	2,209
7	NIBC	18	1,881
8	PwC	16	1,295
9	Holland Corporate Finance	16	0,690
10	MBCF	16	0,08
11	EY	14	2,069
12	Capitalmind	13	0,163
13	BDO	12	0,709
14	Goldman Sachs	11	135,836
15	Rothschild	11	10,453
16	Lazard	9	31,841
17	Lincoln International	9	1,452
18	Bank of America Merrill Lynch	8	126,873
19	Kempen & Co.	8	1,884
20	Nielen Schuman	8	0,927
21	Morgan Stanley	7	40,622
22	JBR	6	0,055
23	Quore Capital	5	1,024
24	Squarefield	5	0,120
25	Hogenhouck	5	0,025
25	Baker Tilly Berk Corporate Finance	5	0,025
25	Main Corporate Finance	5	0,025

 
* The deals of Rabobank and Rembrandt Mergers & Acquisitions have been combined because these entities operate under one balance sheet

 

Source: M&A