Goldman Sachs on brink of best M&A performance in 24 years
Investment bank has secured its dominant position as megadeals rebound
Goldman Sachs is vying to capture its biggest share of the deals market in almost a quarter of a century, with Wall Street’s dominant investment bank emerging as one of the big winners from the rebound in mergers and acquisitions.
The bank has advised on 34 per cent by value of the $3.8tn of global mergers announced this year, according to data from LSEG, up from 28 per cent in 2024.
With less than seven weeks of the year remaining for new deals to be announced, the performance puts Goldman on track for its biggest share of the market since it captured 34.26 per cent in 2015.
The bank’s role advising biotech Cidara Therapeutics on its $9.2bn takeover by Merck, announced on Friday after the LSEG data was compiled, could help push the figure beyond that benchmark to its highest level since 2001.
After a slow start, 2025 is shaping up to be the biggest year for M&A activity since the pandemic-era boom of 2021, with a series of megadeals topped by the $55bn take-private of video games maker Electronic Arts.
Boards have dusted off deals put on hold amid the market turbulence caused by US President Donald Trump’s trade war earlier this year, as confidence has grown in an increasingly laissez-faire attitude by the administration towards big strategic combinations in critical sectors.
Goldman’s performance suggests that Wall Street rivals and boutique advisers such as Evercore and Centerview have done little to loosen the market leader’s grip on the business of offering blue-chip M&A advice. Its presence on many of the biggest deals this year has boosted optimism for future earnings, pushing the bank’s shares to a fresh record high this week.
Although Goldman has advised on many of the biggest deals, it will not receive anything close to a third of the fees. Goldman’s market share by revenue from deals that have been completed is 10.7 per cent in 2025, according to Dealogic data, its highest since 2022.
The bank did record its most lucrative M&A transaction in the bank’s history this quarter, securing a fee of $110mn for advising Electronic Arts on its take-private deal.
It will only receive the full fee when the deal closes, however, with a typical lag of between six and 12 months between a transaction being announced and closing.
Other significant mergers announced this year include Union Pacific’s $85bn takeover of rival Norfolk Southern — from which Bank of America stands to earn a $130mn fee — and Kimberly-Clark agreeing to buy Tylenol owner Kenvue for $48.7bn. Centerview and Goldman were the advisers to Kenvue.
Goldman’s global head of M&A, Stephan Feldgoise, said executives were recognising the dealmaking environment was favourable to transactions with a compelling strategic logic.
“In the current environment, CEOs are recognising from a capital markets and regulatory perspective that if something makes sense strategically then they should consider it,” he said.
JPMorgan Chase, BofA and Wells Fargo are among other investment banks to have made large market share gains in announced M&A this year.
Wells, which earlier this year was freed from a punitive asset cap and has identified investment banking as a growth area, has about an 8 per cent share in announced M&A this year, which would comfortably be its best-ever year. It has risen to eighth place in the rankings from 17th in 2024.
Citigroup, whose investment bank is run by ex-JPMorgan banker Vis Raghavan, has taken the biggest hit to its share of deals by value, falling from 17 per cent in 2024 to 13.6 per cent so far in 2025, according to LSEG data. This would be Citi’s lowest share of announced M&A since 2014.
However, by fees earned on completed deals, Citi’s market share rose to 4.8 per cent, its best showing since 2015.