JPMorgan and Rand Merchant Bank have led the financial advisers charts for mergers and acquisitions in the Middle East and Africa during 2025, based on figures from GlobalData’s latest league table.

JPMorgan led by deal value, advising on transactions totalling $59.5bn over the year.

On the other hand, Rand Merchant Bank topped the volume ranking, participating in nine transactions.

Morgan Stanley came in second in terms of value with advisory on deals worth $40.8bn, ahead of Qatalyst Partners with $25bn, Deutsche Bank with $4.2bn, and Investec with $3.7bn.

In terms of deal volume, Barclays ranked second with six transactions.

The deal volume was matched by Rothschild & Co and Deloitte though the value of the deals advised by them was lower than that of Barclays.

JPMorgan rounded out the top five, advising on five deals during the period.

GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Rand Merchant Bank’s ranking by volume improved from the second position in 2024 despite a year-on-year fall in the number of deals by it. In fact, six of the top 10 advisers by volume registered a drop.

“Meanwhile, JPMorgan advised on relatively fewer number but big-ticket deals, which helped it top the chart by value. During 2025, the bank advised on three billion-dollar deals, out of which the involvement in $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts by a consortium of investors was pivotal for it in securing the top spot by value.”

GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources available on the secondary domain. A dedicated team of analysts monitors all these sources to gather in-depth details for each deal, including adviser names. 

To ensure further robustness to the data, the company also seeks submissions of deals from leading advisers.