Davis Polk & Wardwell and AZB & Partners have led the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal advisers league table in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region during H1 of 2020, based on deal value and volume, respectively, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Davis Polk & Wardwell advised on 20 deals worth $29.2bn, which is the highest value among all the advisers.
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AZB & Partners, which led in terms of volume for having advised on 40 deals worth $21.7bn during H1, took the second position in value terms.
Linklaters took the third position in terms of value with six deals worth $12.1bn.
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By GlobalDataCyril Amarchand Mangaldas got the second spot by volume with 39 deals worth $9.7bn. It was followed by Herbert Smith Freehills with 28 deals worth $7.1bn.
GlobalData financial deals analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “AZB & Partners, despite advising on double the number of deals advised by Davis Polk & Wardwell, lost the top position by value to the latter.”
Even though the two firms advised on same number of big ticket deals, such as Facebook’s acquisition of 9.9% stake in Jio Platforms for $5.7bn and Public Investment Fund’s acquisition of 2.32% stake in Jio Platforms for $1.4bn, Davis Polk & Wardwell also advised on few more high value transactions such as the 58.com acquisition by a consortium of investors for $8.7bn.
Deal landscape in Asia Pacific in H1 2020
Deal activity in the Asia-Pacific region was relatively resilient compared to other regions during the Covid-19 hit first half of 2020.
The count of deals announced in the Asia Pacific region grew by 11.3% from 5,640 in H1 2019 to 6,278 in H1 2020, according to GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database.
Deal value also grew by 4.1% from $255.9bn in H1 2019 to $266.4bn in H1 2020.
Davis Polk & Wardwell, which led the Asia-Pacific deals league table in terms of deal value, figured at 11th position by value in the recently released global league table of top 20 M&A legal advisers by GlobalData. Similarly, AZB & Partners, which topped the Asia-Pacific league table by volume, took the 18th position in terms of volume in the global league table.
To ensure further robustness to the data, the company also seeks submissions from leading advisers, through adviser submission forms on GlobalData’s website
