GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, has revealed its league tables for top 10 legal advisers by value and volume in global oil & gas sector for 2020 in its report, ‘Global and Oil & Gas M&A Review & Financial Adviser League tables’.
According to GlobalData’s M&A report, a total 1,680 M&A deals were announced in the sector during 2020, marking a 15.5% decrease over the 1,987 deals announced in 2019. The deal value decreased by 33% from $412bn in 2019 to $276bn in 2020.
Top Advisers by Value and Volume
Alston & Bird and Kirkland & Ellis were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal advisers in the global oil and gas sector for 2020 by value and volume, respectively. Alston & Bird advised on seven deals worth $55.4bn, which was the highest value among all the advisers. Meanwhile, Kirkland & Ellis led in volume terms having advised on 47 deals worth $24.3bn.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Kirkland & Ellis was the only firm that managed to advise on more than 40 deals, but lost the top spot by value to Alston & Bird due to its lack of involvement in big ticket deals.
“Meanwhile, Alston & Bird advised on more than one-tenth of the deals advised by Kirkland & Ellis but some of those were big-ticket deals. Alston & Bird managed to advise on four billion-dollar deals worth greater than or equal to $1bn that also include three mega deals (deal valued more than or equal to $10bn). On the other hand, Kirkland & Ellis advised on five billion-dollar deals but lacked any mega deal.”
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz occupied the second position in GlobalData’s ranking of legal advisers for M&As in the global oil and gas sector by value with three deals worth $35.7bn, followed by Vinson & Elkins with 27 deals worth $35bn and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett with four deals worth $30.1bn.
Vinson & Elkins occupied the second position by volume, followed by Baker Botts with 25 deals worth $6.6bn and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher with 24 deals worth $21.5bn.
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 from leading advisers, through adviser submission forms on GlobalData’s website.
