Goldman extends EMEA M&A lead as deal value hits 19-year high

A richer fee pool concentrates at the top

Goldman Sachs expanded its lead in mergers-and-acquisitions advice tied to Europe, the Middle East and Africa during the first half of 2026, as LSEG league-table data showed the bank on 111 announced deals worth 44% of regional transaction value.reuters +1 That share was up from 42% a year earlier and marked Goldman's strongest first-half position in the region since 2018.moomoo Announced EMEA M&A reached $676 billion, more than double last year's level and the highest first-half total in 19 years.finimize +1

The rebound matters for bank earnings because advisory revenue is more closely tied to deal value than deal count. A separate Financial News report said U.S. investment banks gained market share as large M&A transactions and IPOs lifted deal fees in the first half.fnlondon

Scale beat volume in the rankings

Rothschild led the region by number of mandates, advising on 163 transactions, but Goldman led by value after working on 15 of the 20 largest EMEA deals.finimize +1 JPMorgan ranked second by value with 99 announced deals and a 35% share, narrowing Goldman's lead to nine percentage points from 11 points a year earlier.moomoo

The biggest assignments drove the gap. Goldman advised Unilever on the roughly $45 billion sale of its food business to McCormick, the largest EMEA transaction of the period, and also worked on the $34 billion merger of TK Elevator and Kone.moomoo The league-table split shows why boutiques can dominate volume while universal banks capture the largest fee pools: a handful of strategic mega-deals can outweigh dozens of smaller assignments.finimize

The boom still depends on deals closing

The regional surge fits a broader global upswing. Reuters reported this week that $10-billion-plus transactions pushed global M&A to record first-half levels, with companies using large takeovers to pursue scale in sectors being reshaped by technology and regulation.reuters Moomoo's summary of LSEG data put first-half global M&A at about $2.8 trillion, up 48% from a year earlier, with 47 mega-deals accounting for nearly half of total value and technology-related transactions reaching about $649 billion.moomoo

That concentration cuts both ways. Advisory league tables can change if announced transactions are delayed, repriced or abandoned before closing, and fee recognition often depends on completion rather than announcement.finimize +1 Carsten Woehrn, Goldman's co-head of EMEA M&A, said companies are taking a long-term strategic view and investing for the positions they want over decades, not just the next few quarters.moomoo