Kirkland, Skadden, Goodwin lead deal adviser rankings as M&A 'headwinds' remain
By David Thomas
Oct 3 (Reuters) -Leading U.S. and international law firms are advising on fewer but larger corporate deals compared to last year, continuing a trend in worldwide mergers and acquisitions activity.
The value of global announced M&A deals during the first nine months of 2024 reached $2.3 trillion, a 16% increase compared to the same period last year and the "strongest opening nine-month period for deal making since 2022," the London Stock Exchange Group said in its rankings of M&A legal advisers released on Thursday.
The number of M&A transactions hit an eight-year low through the third quarter, however, with more than 35,500 deals announced, LSEG said. That's a 20% drop compared to one year ago.
Chicago-founded law firm Kirkland & Ellis was again the top principal adviser in LSEG's rankings for the period by deal value, working on 556 global announced deals worth $295 billion.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom edged out Kirkland as top adviser on global announced deals by value among firms that advised any party in a transaction, including deals that were withdrawn or called off. The firm worked on a total of 159 deals worth $331 billion.
Kirkland and Skadden were on opposite sides of one of the biggest deals of the year -- candy giant Mars' $36 billion purchase of Cheez-It maker Kellanova. Skadden advised Mars while Kirkland advised Kellanova.
Boston-founded Goodwin Procter took the No. 1 principal adviser spot by number of deals in the LSEG data, just ahead of Kirkland. Goodwin worked 603 deals worth $91 billion.
Latham & Watkins served as the principal adviser on 458 global announced deals valued at $273 billion during the first nine months of the year, ranking second by deal value and third by volume. It advised building materials supplier SRS Distribution in its acquisition by Home Depot and Skydance Media on its acquisition of Paramount Global, one of Hollywood's oldest film studios.
"We're still in a market that has some headwinds," said Mark Bekheit, global vice chair of Latham's M&A practice. He noted that the U.S. Federal Reserve only just cut interest rates last month while government agencies continue to scrutinize deals.
Some dealmakers told Reuters last week that they are expecting a slowdown in the fourth quarter as companies put off big deals until after next month's U.S. elections. But Bekheit said he still expects significant M&A activity in the final quarter.
"The number of reported deals is not really representative of the level of activity we're seeing," Bekheit said. "For every deal that's announced, there's quite a few deals happening in the background."
Other M&A partners were also hopeful for a strong end to the year.
"The M&A pipeline looks robust, but we all need to keep an eye on how the election and geopolitical events generally could affect the M&A market as we head into the fourth quarter and into 2025," Kirkland dealmaker Michael Weissner said in a statement.
David Barkus, who co-leads Holland & Knight's corporate, M&A and securities practice, said in a statement he anticipates an "increase in deal activity regardless of the victor" in the U.S. election.
Reporting by David Thomas
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