Top Middle East advisers feted at Mergermarket M&A Awards

Business Bureau, Gulf Today

Mergermarket, the leading provider of M&A data and intelligence, has announced the winners of its fourth annual Middle East & North Africa Awards, recognising the top law firms, investment banks and corporate finance advisors. The prizes recognised corporate advisory, M&A and capital raising activity across a range of sectors including Energy, Mining & Utilities; Financial Services; Consumer; Pharma, Medical & Biotech; Telecoms; Media & Technology; and Industrials & Chemicals.

Of the financial advisor winners, Mergermarket named Moelis & Company as the region’s best M&A financial advisor as well the best financial advisor in the energy, mining and utilities sector.

This award highlights their high-profile work on the transformative deals in the oil sector advising ADNOC. Winners in other sector rankings included Barclays for best financial advisor in financial services; BNP Paribas for the best consumer financial advisor; Manhattan Capital for best M&A financial advisor in the pharma sector and EY for best technology M&A financial advisor.

Of the legal advisor nominations, Shearman & Sterling was named as the MENA region’s top M&A legal advisor as well as best M&A law firm in the energy, mining and utilities sector. In the sector rankings, Baker McKenzie was named best financial services and consumer retail M&A legal advisor; Latham & Watkins was named law firm of the year in the PMB sector; White & Case was named TMT law firm of the year and Pinsent Masons was named industrials & chemicals M&A law firm.

In the Fixed Income space, Emirates NBD was recognised as the Middle East Loan and Bond Bank of the Year.

The prize recognises debt capital markets coverage for sovereign and corporate clients. Emirates NBD placed in excess of USD 16bn across loan deals and helped issuers globally to raise $13b, including the first ever international Sukuk offering by a corporate in Oman.

Speaking on the event, Matthew Robinson, Events Director at Mergermarket, commented:

“We’re excited to once again showcase the top advisory work in the Middle East & North Africa region by hosting these awards. Tonight’s ceremony is the culmination of a long deliberation process for our judges, which began with the publishing of Mergermarket’s M&A league tables at the start of the year. Congratulations to the winners and all those shortlisted.”

Philip Whitchelo, Vice-President of Strategy & Product Marketing, SS&C Intralinks, stated:

“For the past three years, SS&C Intralinks has been the exclusive sponsor of the Mergermarket MENA M&A Awards. Congratulations to all of the winners from everyone at SS&C Intralinks.”

The awards were preceded by the MENA Mergers forum, which featured a series of panel discussions, hosted by high level spokespeople from Takaful Emarat, TVM Capital Healthcare Partners, Crescent Enterprises, UIL&FS, Samena Capital Investments, Standard Chartered Bank, to name a few. The awards ceremony is sponsored by Intralinks

Please see below the full list of winners:

Consumer Financial Advisor of the Year: BNP Paribas.

Consumer Legal Advisor of the Year: Baker McKenzie.

Energy Mining & Utilities Financial Advisor of the Year: Moelis & Company. Energy, Mining & Utilities Legal Advisor of the Year: Shearman & Sterling. Financial Services Financial Advisor of the Year: Barclays.

Financial Services Legal Advisor of the Year: Baker McKenzie. Industrials & Chemicals Financial Advisor of the Year: Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Industrials & Chemicals Legal Advisor of the Year: Pinsent Masons. Pharma, Medical & Biotech Financial Advisor of the Year: Manhattan Capital.

Pharma Medical & Biotech Legal Advisor of the Year: Latham & Watkins. Telecoms, Media & Technology Financial Advisor of the Year: EY.

Telecoms, Media & Technology Legal Advisor of the Year: White & Case. Financial Advisor of the Year 2019: Moelis & Company.

Legal Advisor of the Year 2019: Shearman & Sterling. Bond & Loan Bank: Emirates NBD Capital.

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