What Is the Deal with League Tables?

Investment bankers care about fees, but they also care as much about league tables. League tables rank firms from the greatest amount of fees earned to the least, typically by banking product and industry vertical. They also consider the number of transactions executed though this is typically second to fees.

The go-to resource for investment banking league tables is Dealogic though other sources such as Bloomberg also have league tables. Dealogic relies on public information in filings and press releases on the advisors, underwriters, arrangers listed in transactions, but Dealogic will also ask each major firm if there are deals they executed that are not included in their quarterly list, and banks have the ability to submit additional deals by submitting proof such as an engagement letter. Interestingly, firms can also challenge deal credit of other banks, which creates a disincentive for firms to misrepresent their roles on transactions.

The above Dealogic table for 2024 shows the top advisors for global M&A. Goldman Sachs appears as the #1 advisor with $539.5 billion in transaction value across 233 transactions. The $539.5 billion represents the total value of all of the M&A transactions (both buyside and sellside) that Goldman has worked on this year. This is up from the same period in 2023, which was a tougher year for M&A, and last year, JP Morgan was #1 year to date. Looking at the top 10 advisors, we see that the US bulge bracket banks take up the top 5 spots, followed by a mix of boutique banks and two large European bulge bracket names. While they are termed boutiques, Evercore and PJT are publicly listed companies though their businesses are much more limited than the bulge bracket set.

So why do bankers care so much about league tables? They are the most important real-time marketing data to share with clients. Demonstrating the credibility of being a top 10 advisor is very meaningful in such a competitive industry. For boutiques, they are important in showing the ability of those firms to 'punch above their weight' - Evercore has a higher deal value than the European firms and Centerview has a larger average deal size than even Goldman Sachs.

At the same time, league tables are not everything for several reasons. One, they shift quarter to quarter and even a single large deal can move one firm ahead of another (the largest deal of 2024YTD is CapitalOne/Discover at $35 billion). Furthermore, Dealogic league tables do not consider the fees actually earned by firms. Some deals, especially the largest, have multiple advisors and one advisor might be getting significantly more fees for bringing the transaction together while another advisor might get last minute M&A deal credit for providing financing for an acquisition (commonly seen amongst the bulge bracket). Therefore, while the higher quality firms do tend to find themselves in the top set of the league tables, there is much more than meets the eye when it comes to the investment banking 'scorecard'.