Citi and Houlihan Lokey have emerged as the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers in the financial services sector for the first quarter of 2025, according to the latest financial advisers league table by GlobalData.
The data and analytics company’s latest financial advisers league table shows that Citi led by deal value, while Houlihan Lokey topped by deal volume.
Citi secured its leading position by advising on deals worth $16.9bn. Houlihan Lokey, on the other hand, led in volume by advising on 12 deals.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “During Q1 2025, Houlihan Lokey was the only adviser to hit double-digit deal volume. There was a notable improvement in the total number of deals advised by it during Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024. Resultantly, it went ahead from occupying the 19th position by volume in Q1 2024 to top the chart by this metric in Q1 2025.
“Meanwhile, Citi also registered improvement in terms of value, as most of the deals advised by it during Q1 2025 were big-ticket deals. Resultantly, its ranking by value also improved from the 11th position in Q1 2024 to the top position in Q1 2025.
“Four of the five deals advised by Citi during Q1 2025 were billion-dollar deals* that also included one mega deal valued more than $10bn. Apart from leading by value, Citi also occupied the seventh position in terms of deal volume during Q1 2025.”
In terms of value, JP Morgan followed closely behind Citi, advising on deals worth $16.4bn.
Goldman Sachs ranked third with $15bn, followed by UBS at $6.2bn and Morgan Stanley at $5.3bn. These firms remain key players in high-value M&A transactions.
For deal volume, Piper Sandler secured the second position with nine deals. JP Morgan followed with eight deals, while both UBS and PwC advised on seven deals each.
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.
