RBC and CIBC: First in Canadian Mergers And Acquisitions

The credit crunch that is wreaking havoc on the global banking industry made the financial services sector the worst place to do M&A. But a flurry of deals in the past few weeks has quickly made it the busiest.

In its quarterly tally of merger and acquisition activity, mergermarket said:

Wall Street will now no longer be associated with its big investment banking residents, rather, it will be known for its 'superbanks.'  All five of the Streets' top investment banks have either been absorbed, or converted into 'deposit hunting' commercial banks.

Bank of America’s (BAC) takeover of Merrill Lynch (MER) gives the combined firms $765-billion in total deals, putting it at the top of mergermarket’s rankings in both value and volume. Citigroup’s (C) takeover of Wachovia (WB) will produce some improvements, while Barclays (BCS) is set to become a leading deal-maker as a result of its purchase of Lehman Brothers (LEH) U.S. investment banking business, the research firm said. Meanwhile, the adoption of a new business model by Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) is expected to threaten their long-standing dominance. Firms like Deutsche Bank (DB) have already overtaken them in European and Asian M&A.

In Canada, RBC Capital Markets took top spot in deal value at more than $42-billion, while CIBC World Markets ranked first in volume with 32 deals.

RBC also moved up from 91st place in 2007 to 13th after the first three quarters in 2008 among financial advisors to U.S. buyouts, as a result of one deal with a value of $1.181-billion.  

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Source: mergermarket M&A League Tables of Financial Advisors - Third Quarter 2008