Last year was not a vintage year for dealmaking in the City as the impact of higher interest rates and economic uncertainty put corporate mergers and acquisitions into a state of hibernation.
Figures from PwC suggest there were 3,628 M&A deals across 2023, down from 4,362 the previous year.
The total value of deals meanwhile fell to £88bn, down from £150bn in 2021.
However, as the figures imply, there was still plenty of scope for dealmakers to ply their trade.
As City A.M. recently reported, while the majority of UK M&A deals last year were led by corporates, the number of deals involving private equity reached its highest level at 42 per cent of the total, up five per cent from 2022.
At the top end of the scale, one of the largest deals was Investec’s wealth arm with Rathbones, which created a £100bn wealth manager. One of the smallest deals was HSBC’s purchase of Silicon Valley Bank UK for just £1.
Anthony Zammit, Morgan Stanley’s Morgan Stanley’s co-head of UK & Ireland investment banking topped the table in terms of the value of announced transactions.
Boutique firm Robey Warshaw notched two spots in the list with both Simon Robey and Simon Warshaw coming in the top ten.
Here’s the list of the City’s most prolific rainmakers, according to financial intelligence firm Mergerlnks.
NameBankLeague table volumeLeague table value (£m)Anthony ZammitMorgan Stanley324,244Simon WarshawRobey Warshaw219,362Kamal JabreHSBC217,038Majid IshaqRothschild & Co55,496Laurent DhomeBank of America14,882Robert RedshawCitigroup22,836Stuart OrdDeutsche Numis112,645Laurence HopkinsMorgan Stanley42,201Simon RobeyRobey Warshaw11,920Alisdair GayneBarclays11,920
The prospect of interest rate cuts in 2024 is expected to fuel a resurgence in M&A activity, financed by the $4trn in dry powder built up globally. The UK’s relatively cheap assets are likely to be particularly attractive.