JP Morgan and Houlihan Lokey have been identified as the leading financial advisers in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for the first quarter of 2025, according to the latest financial advisers league table published by GlobalData.
This ranking evaluates financial advisers based on the value and volume of M&A transactions they have facilitated.
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According to GlobalData’s Deals Database, JP Morgan secured its top position in the deal value rankings by advising on transactions totalling $133.6bn.
In contrast, Houlihan Lokey excelled in deal volume, advising on a total of 69 transactions.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “It is interesting to note that both JP Morgan and Houlihan Lokey were also the top advisers by value and volume in Q1 2024. And despite registering a year-on-year decline in value and volume, respectively, they were still ahead of peers and managed to retain their leadership positions by these metrics in Q1 2025 as well.
“Houlihan Lokey experienced a marginal drop in deal volume, as a result the total number of deals advised by it mostly remained at the same level in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024. Meanwhile, around half of the deals advised by JP Morgan during Q1 2025 were billion-dollar deals*. Moreover, these also included four mega deals valued more than $10bn, which played a pivotal role for JP Morgan is leading the pack by value. It also occupied the second position by volume”
Further analysis of the data indicates that JP Morgan also ranked second in deal volume, having advised on 56 transactions.
Goldman Sachs followed closely with 52 deals, while PwC and Morgan Stanley advised on 38 and 36 deals, respectively.
In terms of deal value, Goldman Sachs ranked second, advising on transactions worth $130.4bn. Morgan Stanley, Citi, and Barclays followed, with deal values of $96.7bn, $83.2bn, and $74.7bn, respectively.
GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources available on the secondary domain. A dedicated team of analysts monitors all these sources to gather in-depth details for each deal, including adviser names.
To ensure further robustness to the data, the company also seeks submissions of deals from leading advisers.
