By Godson Umejiego, Correspondent USA

JP Morgan and PwC were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers in the construction sector for Q1-Q3 2020 by value and volume, respectively. A total of 2,118 M&A deals were announced in the construction sector during the period, according to GlobalData.

According to GlobalData’s M&A report, ‘Global and Construction M&A Report Financial Adviser League Tables Q1-Q3 2020’, there was a 21.5 per cent decrease over 2,697 deals that were announced during Q1-Q3 2019. Deal value also decreased by 51.4 per cent from US$320bn in Q1-Q3 2019 to US$156bn in Q1-Q3 2020.

In GlobalData’s ranking, JP Morgan gained the top spot in terms of deal value by advising on six deals worth US$31.8bn, which was the highest value among all the advisers. Meanwhile, PwC led in volume terms having advised on 14 deals worth US$1.8bn.

Lead Analyst at GlobalData, Aurojyoti Bose comments: “PwC, despite advising on more than double the number of deals advised by JP Morgan, failed to even cross US$2bn in value. PwC not only lost the top position by value to the latter but also failed to make it to the list of top ten advisors in terms of value.

“On the other hand, JP Morgan was the only adviser to surpass the US$30bn mark due to its involvement in high value transactions. JP Morgan advised on four billion-dollar deals worth greater than or equal to US$1bn, out of which one was a megadeal worth greater than or equal to US$10bn, while PwC did not advise on any such high value deals.”

Goldman Sachs occupied the second position by value with four deals worth US$27.8bn, followed by Rothschild & Co with 12 deals worth US$25.8bn and Lazard with eight deals worth US$25.2bn.

Ernst & Young occupied the second position by volume with 13 deals worth US$24.7bn, followed by Rothschild & Co.