It's not just a flash in the pan. For the first five months of the year, Morgan Stanley topped the global adviser rankings for announced deals, a 36% market share, taking the top spot away from Goldman Sachs. This is the first time the bank's market share for global announced deals has ever gone as high as 36%. The bank's second-quarter advisory revenue, announced last month, was also looking healthy, up 10% to $357 million when other banks, including Goldman, saw a drop in advisory revenue in the quarter.
Ji-Yeun Lee, chief operating officer of Morgan Stanley's mergers and acquisitions department in New York, says the strong global market share shows the momentum of the bank's advisory business across all regions and sectors and the importance of combining strong client relationships with product expertise. "There's always a bit of a time lag, but this shows the effort we have been putting into client relationships for a long time," he says.
The bank's performance is particularly impressive given the uncertainties over the leadership of the bank and a senior departure from its mergers and acquisitions business. Raymond McGuire, one of the bank's co-heads of global M&A, left in late May to join Citigroup to become co-head of global investment banking.