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

Which corporate finance-offices and investment banks guided the most Dutch merges and acquisitions in 2015? The five biggest M&A advisors considered deal size in the Netherlands are all American investment banks, with J.P. Morgan in leading position. The three Dutch big banks do stand at the top of the transaction list with number of deals.

“The Dutch banks are rewarded with prizes at the annual M&A Awards. But the American investment banks do all the big Dutch deals,” wrote NRC December 10th about the M&A Awards 2015. This makes sense when 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.

Top 25 considered deal size
At the biggest Dutch take-over in 2015, of BG by Shell, (65 billion) we find J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of Amerika as M&A advisors. Also the 10 billion euro plus-deals of Ahold-Delhaize, JAB-Keurig Green Mountain and NXP-Freescale were mainly guided by international investment banks which got the honour to construct the transactions.

              

Name

Number of deals

Deal size   (billion €)

J.P. Morgan

20

145,834 

Goldman Sachs

11

135,836 

Bank of   America Merrill Lynch

8

126,873 

Morgan Stanley

7

40,622 

Lazard

9

31,841 

Deutsche Bank

3

25,687 

HSBC

4

23,922 

Credit Suisse

3

23,745 

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 

Even though the battle of advisory for international mega mergers was definitely won by London and Wall Street (also when one of these mega mergers is from the Netherlands), the role of the Dutch investment banks and advisory firms in the Dutch economy is undiminished big.

Dutch dealmakers advised invariably at domestic SME and midcap transactions. Don’t forget that the SMEs and midcap companies together offer the majority of the working population a job and contain the majority of the total revenue of business in the Netherlands.

Top 25 considered number of deals
So apart from those several huge transactions, which parties structurally provide M&A-advice to companies and private equity sector throughout the year? ING Group is standing out with 35 deals. Followed by 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

Deal size   (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 Fusies & Overnames are combined because these entities operate under one balance sheet.

 

Source: M&A