Top ten most active financial and legal advisers in M&A

US-based financial group Citigroup has topped the M&A league table, advising the largest transactions by value in the first six months of 2009, and by number (two worth an aggregate $872 mln), according to a DealWatch report.

All M&A deals and initial public offerings larger than one million dollars were considered by DealWatch.

In the six months through June, the Romanian deal market fell 75% in terms of value and 18% in terms of deal number compared to the same period of last year, according to data provided by Raiffeisen Investment.

The French-based BNP Paribas that took up second position advised only one transaction worth $293 mln. Rothschild advised one deal of $293 mln and came in third. The investment bank is present in local advisory services since 1998 and since 2000 it has a new senior country advisor, Florin Olteanu.

Both Citigroup and Rothschild served as financial advisers of Cosmote, in the year’s largest deal in the tech industry: the acquisition of Telemobil, the company that administrates Zapp mobile phone network.

America’s JP Morgan Chase is ranked fourth, with only on deal advised worth $242 mln. In the last year ranking, JP Morgan Chase was still the third most active financial adviser in Romanian M&A market, with total deal value of $2.868 bln.

Cenkos Securities with a deal worth $19mln is ranked fifth, followed by investment bank Lazard, headed by legendary Bruce Wasserstein. Lazard rebounded after a period marked by severe turmoil in the financial markets and reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit: the earnings of the investment bank fell by merely 18% in second quarter, as business restructuring started to pick up.

Two local independent players are included in the table: Altria Capital that advised the acquisition of Diamedix by the buyout firm Ged ($16 mln) and the takeover of 52% of recruiter Barnett McCall Recruitment by Italian-based Gi Group ($2 mln).

Altria Capital, the investment firm held by Marian Tescaru advised one more deal in 2009, but was not disclosed.