GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, has revealed its global league tables for top 10 legal advisers in power sector by value and volume for 2021 in its report, ‘Global and Power M&A Report Legal Adviser League Tables 2021’.

According to GlobalData’s M&A report, a total of 2,506 merger and acquisition (M&A) deals were announced in the sector during 2021, while deal value for the sector increased by 46.1% from $260.6bn during 2020 to $380.8bn during 2021.

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Top advisers by value and volume

Herbert Smith Freehills and Watson Farley & Williams were the top M&A legal advisers in the power sector in 2021 by value and volume, respectively.

Herbert Smith Freehills advised on 22 deals worth $35.1bn and Watson Farley & Williams advised on 43 deals worth $1.9bn.

GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “In volume terms the top five legal advisers all managed to advise on at least 30 deals each during 2021 with two advisors, Watson Farley & Williams and White & Case securing more than 40 deals each. Although their deal volumes were high, both companies advised on a relatively lesser number of lower-value deals than other companies and so White & Case occupied the tenth position by value while Watson Farley & Williams didn’t feature in the top 10 value chart.”

Herbert Smith Freehills achieved the top spot by value in 2021 as it advised on five deals worth over $1bn each, including two mega deals valued at over $10bn each.

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Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom took the second position in terms of value with 19 deals worth $32.2bn followed by Weil Gotshal & Manges at number 3 with 10 deals worth $31.2bn.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton were fourth with 13 deals worth $29.5bn and Davis Polk & Wardwell were in fifth place with six deals worth $27.8bn.

Bose added: “Ranking by deal volume revealed some interesting insights with Cuatrecasas and Kirkland & Ellis building their presence in the M&A legal advisers space during 2021 with Cuatrecasas achieving a 200% growth rate in the number of deals managed from nine in 2020 to 27 in 2021.

“Kirkland & Ellis also achieved a high growth rate in deal numbers moving from 17 deals in 2020 to 37 in 2021, a growth rate of 117%.” 

GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources available on the secondary domain. A dedicated team of analysts monitors all these sources to gather in-depth details for each deal, including adviser names.

To ensure further robustness to the data, the company also seeks submissions from leading advisers, through adviser submission forms on GlobalData’s website.