Robert Kindler, Morgan Stanley’s (NYSE:MS) chief dealmaker, is outrunning his rivals at Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) by placing his firm at the top spot in the mergers and acquisitions [M&A] league tables as the Street’s busiest adviser.
According to Reuters, Morgan has overtaken Goldman as the top-ranked adviser for both global and U.S. M&A, working on seven of the Street’s top 10 deals worth nearly $500 billion so far this fiscal year. The deals included two drug industry mega-mergers: Wyeth (NYSE:WYE) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), and Schering-Plough and Merck (NYSE:MRK), a joint venture between miners Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP) and BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP), and the restructuring of GM.
Goldman however, still beat Morgan in terms of share of M&A fees with a 9% market share, while Morgan grabbed 5.4% of the market.
Morgan’s strong showing under Kindler not only spells prestige and fees, but marks a rebound for the bank after it fell to fifth position in the global advisory rankings by value in 2008. “I’m having fun,” says Kindler, a former Wall Street lawyer who joined Morgan Stanley three years ago from JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM).
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