Morgan Stanley maintains top position in local M&A advisory market

Morgan Stanley's offices in New York / AP-Yonhap

By Anna J. Park

So far this year, Morgan Stanley has been enjoying the top position among finance companies providing advisory services to local companies going through mergers and acquisitions (M&As).

Morgan Stanley is more than 3 trillion won ($2.5 billion) ahead of JPMorgan, which has been in the second position in the M&A advisory market so far this year, in terms of the total value of M&A deals they have made based on their advisory services. So, it is highly likely that Morgan Stanley will maintain its top position until the end of this year.

The $4 billion acquisition deal for Korea's top food delivery app, Baemin, is the main reason Morgan Stanley has been the top player in the local M&A advisory market this year.

Morgan Stanley also advised on other major M&A deals, including the sale of global communication platform Hyperconnect to U.S.-based Match Group, the sale of Samsung Display's LCD factory in China to CSOT and the sale of Job Korea to Affinity Equity Partners. The global finance company also advised on another major deal here, the sale of eBay Korea for 3.4 trillion won to retailer E-mart.

JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs follow in the top M&A advisory player list, as they took the second and third positions in terms of cumulative deals in the first three quarters of this year.

JPMorgan, in particular, had been shut out of the top 10 list during the first quarter of this year. Yet, it jumped to the top three in the second quarter, with the completion of major deals, including HYBE's acquisition of Ithaca Holdings and the sale of waste management firm Clenco.

The total amount of cumulative M&A deals during the first three quarters of this year reached 54.9 trillion won, with 416 deals. This figure is a huge increase from the 35.6 trillion won made from 320 deals logged in the same period of last year.