NEW YORK—While Sard Verbinnen continued to top the mergermarket global ranking of PR firm advisors on mergers and acquisitions during the first half of 2018, working on more deals than any other firm, Finsbury and Hering Schuppener—a partnership between WPP owned Finsbury and German powerhouse Hering Schuppener—shot into the number one spot in terms of the value of deals worked.

Sard Verbinnen, which was number one in 2017, worked on 114 deals in the first half of this year, ahead of FTI Consulting (104), Brunswick Group (83) and Finsbury Hering Schuppener (74 deals each).

Finsbury and Hering Schuppener’s deals were worth in excess of $293 billion, ranking number one on mergermarket’s value ranking, ahead of Sard Verbinnen, Brunswick, FTI and Joele Frank Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher.

Reflecting a handful of giant transactions—CVS and Aetna, Disney and 20th Century Fox, Broadcom and Qualcomm, Bayer and Monsanto—nine of the top 10 firms on the mergermarket list saw the value of deals increase, with the value of Finsbury and Hering Schuppener’s deals more than doubling in the past 12 months.

Other highlights:

  • Sard Verbinnen led both the value and volume rankings in the US, ahead of Joele Frank in the former and Kekst in the latter;
  • Finsbury and Hering Schuppener were number one in value in the European tables, ahead of Brunswick, and number two in volume, behind FTI;
  • Maitland was number one in value and volume in the UK, leading Finsbury and FTI respectively;
  • Not surprisingly, Hering Schuppener was number one in both rankings in Germany, with CNC/JKL (part of MSLGroup) number two in both;
  • Sard Verbinnen led the value ranking in France, while local player Image Sept was number one in terms of volume;
  • Brunswick was number one by value in Italy, while perennial market leader Barabino & Partners led the volume table;
  • Llorente & Cuenca was tops in terms of value in Spain, with Estudio de Communicacion leading the volume rankings;
  • In the Asia-Pacific region, Brunswick was number one by value, ahead of Edelman, while Sard Verbinnen was tops in value, beating out Australian market leader Citadel Magnus;
  • In Japan, FTI Consulting was number one by value, while Brunswick led in volume of deals.