Western investment bank JP Morgan has knocked Moscow brokerage Troika Dialog off the top M&A adviser perch in Russia during the first half of 2009, according to data provider Mergermarket.
JP Morgan has so far advised on three deals with a total value of $6.2bn, while Troika lags in joint 12th position having only advised on one deal this year worth $300m.
Bulge bracket banks Merrill Lynch and Citigroup complete the top trio with the former advising on two deals worth $4.6n and the latter on three deals worth $4.5bn.
Troika saw more activity for the same period last year advising on nine deals valued at $10.8bn.
Deal activity in terms of value has picked up from the latter half of 2008, increasing by 62.8% to $14.9bn, though this is still 67.8% lower than the activity recorded for the first half of 2008.
Energy, mining and utilities made up 72% of the overall M&A activity in Russia for the first six months of 2009, as firms such as Gazprom, AFK Sistema and Surgutneftegaz announced deals despite the downturn. The consumer sector is still the most active area of deal flow, representing over 20% of overall deal-flow.
Foreign investors were not as eager to part with their dollars. Inbound M&A into the Russian market for the firs half of 2099 amounted to $2.7bn, a decrease of 83.7% from $16.4bn invested a year ago.
M&A in the BRIC countries is not immune to the downturn in global M&A activities. With 519 announced deals valued at $102.5bn, total deal volume in the first half of 2009 is down 34% from the same period last year, while total deal value is down by 41%.
However quarter-on-quarter analysis suggests a recovery is not far off. The second quarter boasted a 47% gain on the first quarter which could mean M&A activity in the BRIC countries has finally bottomed out.
Mergermarket attributed the gain to to BRIC countries gathering a large share of the M&A game and also because of the jump in volume and value in Chinese dealmaking, which increased in the second quarter to 8.3% by value and 7.4% by volume, from 5.8% and 5.4% respectively in 2008.
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.