Simpson Thacher & Bartlett was the leading legal adviser globally for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the first half (H1) of 2020 in the oil & gas sector, according to GlobalData.
The American law firm topped the rankings with a deal value of 10.1bn, by advising on one deal during the period. Allen & Overy stood at second position with $5.4bn earned on advising five deals.
Baker Botts occupied third place with 13 deals worth $5.19bn.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett stood at eighth position in the GlobalData’s H1 2020 ranking of top 20 legal advisers for global M&A.
GlobalData has published a top ten league table of legal advisers ranked according to the value of announced M&A deals globally. If the value remains the same for multiple advisers, the deal volume is given weightage.
The oil & gas sector saw a 76.2% decrease in deal value from $189.6bn in H1 2019 to $45.2bn in H1 2020. Deal volume declined by 29.3% from 1,023 to 723.
Baker Botts tops by volume
Baker Botts was the top M&A legal adviser for the oil and gas sector based on deal volume in H1 2020, having advised on 13 deals worth $5.2bn.
With nine transactions worth $1.1bn, Vinson & Elkins occupied the second spot, followed by Jones Day with eight deals $3.7bn.
GlobalData financial deals analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Baker Botts was the only advisor to see double-digit deal volume, however, the company still lost the top position by value to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, which advised on only one deal but a megadeal worth less than or equal to $10bn.”
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.
