JP Morgan and Houlihan Lokey lead two league tables devised by GlobalData after analysing the M&A that took place in the consumer sector in the first half of the year.
According to GlobalData, Just Drinks’ parent, JP Morgan headed the charts when measuring the value of transactions in the first six months of 2025, while Houlihan Lokey advised on the most deals.
JP Morgan worked on deals in the consumer sector worth a cumulative $7.23bn. Houlihan Lokey was appointed an adviser on ten transactions. One of the deals JP Morgan covered was the sale of a majority stake in US-based Spindrift Beverage Company to Gryphon Investors in January.
Aurojyoti Bose, lead analyst at GlobalData, said: “Despite registering a year-on-year decline in the total number of deals advised by it, Houlihan Lokey was the only adviser to hit double-digit deal volume during H1 2025.
“Meanwhile, JP Morgan experienced around 10% growth in the total value of deals advised by it during H1 2025 compared to H1 2024. Apart from leading by value, JP Morgan also held the seventh position by volume during H1 2025.”
When measuring the value of deals, Citi ranked second, advising on $4.47bn worth of transactions.
Centerview Partners followed, working on three deals worth a combined $2.74bn, then came Goldman Sachs with $2.49bn and Barclays with $2.26bn.
In terms of deal volume, Rothschild & Co., PwC and Spayne Lindsay each worked on nine transactions.
GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources. A team of analysts gathers 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.
