Cleary Gottlieb’s M&A practice scored high in the newly released Mergermarket, Bloomberg, Thomson Financial and Dealogic league tables. Highlights include number one rankings for global financial industry transactions based on deal value (Bloomberg) and for Italian M&A based on deal value (Mergermarket). Cleary also ranked fifth in worldwide M&A based on deal value (Thomson Reuters). With $405 billion in announced global deal volume, Cleary placed third on Dealogic’s ranking of firms as counsel to either principals or financial advisers and fifth in total European deal value when deals involving counsel to the principal only were considered separately.
Legal Week analyzed the data in the various league tables based on work done for principals and advisers in transactions and ranked Cleary the number one lead adviser on European M&A for all U.S.-based firms.
When considering only the U.S.-based firms on these league tables, Cleary posted impressive results in many additional areas. Among U.S.-based firms, Cleary placed first in Benelux M&A (announced deals, Mergermarket and Thomson Financial), second in German M&A (completed deals, Thomson Reuters), second in Asian M&A (announced deals, excluding Japan, Thomson Reuters), second in French M&A (announced deals, Mergermarket), and third in Spanish M&A (announced deals, Thomson Reuters and Mergermarket). Cleary also won the number three spot among U.S.-based firms for total value of global private equity M&A (Bloomberg), and for cross-border global M&A (announced deals, as reported by Bloomberg).
Commenting on the firm’s sixth place finish on Thomson Reuters’ league table for U.S.-based M&A, Legal Week said, “the most dramatic improvement came from Cleary, which saw a 270.6% increase in U.S. deal value in 2005 to complement a break-through year for its corporate practice in Europe.”
Further showcasing the strength of the firm’s global practice, Enrique González Díaz ranked among the top ten individual legal advisors for Europe in 2005, according to Mergermarket.