Morgan Stanley tops M&A advisory market in Korea in Q1

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By Anna J. Park

Morgan Stanley's Korea branch topped the list of the M&A advisory market during the first quarter. The U.S.-headquartered investment bank's lucrative Q1 results came from inking major deals, including the sale of local recruitment site JobKorea for 900 billion won ($800 million).

Morgan Stanley also led Match Group's $1.73 billion buyout deal of Korea-headquartered social networking company Hyperconnect, which operates global-based applications Azar and Hakuna Live.

According to the investment banking industry, the firm is expected to maintain the top position in the M&A advisory market in Korea throughout this year, as it is also participating in the sell-off of eBay Korea as well as the nation's second-largest food delivery platform Yogiyo.

Credit Suisse, last year's top performer in the advisory sector, took the second place during the first three months of this year, as the Switzerland-headquartered global financial firm managed Doosan Group's restructuring deals, including the selling of Doosan Infracore. The firm also advised a recently inked deal of Hoban E&C's buying of Taihan Electric Wire's 40 percent stake for 251.8 billion won ($222 million).

Citigroup Global Markets took the third position in the M&A advisory sector, as it led SK Group's $1.6 billion capital investment in Plug Power, a U.S.-based hydrogen fuel cell solutions provider. The investment banking unit of Citigroup is also managing a sale of minority stakes of SK lubricants, a petroleum unit of SK Group.

Local brokerage firms Samsung Securities, NH Investment & Securities and UBS lagged behind their foreign competitors as they took the seventh, eighth and ninth places at the local M&A advisory market during the first quarter.