Surprise. The top merger advisor really is...

We noted recently that when it comes to financial sponsor-backed IPOs, the choice of underwriter seems to be significant in terms of performance. UBS, somewhat surprisingly, fared the best. Now, The New York Times takes a look at whether advisors matter when it comes to strategic deals. It commissioned a study to look at the returns of companies that made acquisitions in 2002-2005. Surprisingly, neither Goldman Sachs nor Morgan Stanley racked up the biggest gains, despite their dominance in the league tables. The winner was another surprise, Deutsche Bank, whose clients outperformed their sector competitors by nearly 30 percent vs. 6 percent for Goldman Sachs. It may be that Deutsche Bank has had significantly fewer deals--no one really thinks of it as an investment banking powerhouse--such that a few winners can really swing performance. In any case, it is something that competitors of the big two can make hay with in the market.

For more:
- here's the article from the NYT