JP Morgan and Houlihan Lokey have led the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) rankings for financial advisers in the first half of 2025, according to the latest Financial Advisers League Table published by GlobalData, a data and analytics firm.

The analysis from GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database indicates that JP Morgan secured the top spot in deal value, advising on transactions amounting to $237.1bn.

Houlihan Lokey led by deal volume, facilitating a total of 128 transactions during the same period.

GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Both JP Morgan and Houlihan Lokey were also the top advisers by value and volume in H1 2024 and managed to retain the leadership positions in H1 2025 as well. Moreover, JP Morgan, which led by value, also occupied the second position by volume in H1 2025.

“It is interesting to note that apart from Houlihan Lokey, JP Morgan was the only adviser to hit triple-digit deal volume during the review period. In addition, JP Morgan managed to advise on several big-ticket deals, which helped it top the chart by value. During H1 2025, it advised on 50 billion-dollar deals*, which also included six mega deals valued more than $10bn.”

Further examination of the data shows that JP Morgan also ranked second in deal volume, having advised on 108 transactions.

Goldman Sachs followed closely with 93 deals, while both Ernst & Young and PwC each advised on 75 deals.

In terms of deal value, Goldman Sachs held the second position, advising on $217.2bn worth of transactions. Morgan Stanley ranked third with $177.5bn, followed by Citi at $171.1bn and Barclays at $146.1bn.

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 of deals from leading advisers.