Morgan Stanley and Houlihan Lokey topped the charts of financial advisors working on consumer M&A in 2025, according to newly released deals data.
According to GlobalData, Just Drinks’ parent, Morgan Stanley led the chart for deal value while Houlihan Lokey worked on the most consumer-sector transactions by volume.
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Morgan Stanley advised on deals worth a cumulative $79.71bn. The data showed Houlihan Lokey was appointed an adviser on 30 transactions.
Aurojyoti Bose, lead analyst at GlobalData, said: “Houlihan Lokey was the top adviser by volume in 2024 and retained its leadership position by this metric in 2025.
“Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley advised on a smaller number of deals but still managed not only to lead by value but also to outpace peers by a significant margin. Of the nine deals advised by Morgan Stanley during 2025, four were billion-dollar deals that also included two mega deals valued more than $10bn. Involvement in these high-value transactions helped it top the chart by value.”
In August, Morgan Stanley was contracted on Keurig Dr Pepper’s move to acquire Dutch coffee company JDE Peet’s for €15.7bn ($18.36bn) and then split the combined business into two.
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By GlobalDataThe thrust of Houlihan Lokey’s work came in food, including Kraft Heinz’s sale of a clutch of assets in Italy to NewPrinces in July.
When measuring the value of deals, Goldman Sachs ranked second, advising on $65.13bn worth of transactions.
JPMorgan followed, working on 11 deals worth a combined $57.3bn, then came Centerview Partners on $56.11bn and PJT Partners on a pair of transactions worth a combined $48.7bn.
In terms of deal volume, Rothschild & Co. were second after working on 20 deals, followed by Spayne Lindsay on 17, Goldman Sachs on 16 and then a pair –Lazard and Deloitte – on 15.
GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of sources including company websites and advisory firm websites. 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.
