BMO Capital Markets has been named the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial adviser in the global mining sector for 2020 by value, while Linklaters and Blake, Cassels & Graydon were the top M&A legal advisers by value and volume, respectively.

BMO advised on 13 deals worth $4.8-billion.

This while Canaccord Genuity Group was the top M&A financial adviser by volume, having advised on 14 deals worth $2.9-billion.

Data and analytics company GlobalData found that a total 1 712 M&A deals were announced in the mining sector last year, which was a 33.8% increase on the 1 280 deals announced in 2019.

However, deal value had decreased by 12.3% from $65-billion in 2019 to $57-billion in 2020.

GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose says BMO and Canaccord were the only two firms that managed to achieve double-digit deal volume in 2020.

The Bank of Nova Scotia occupied the second position in GlobalData’s ranking of financial advisers for M&A in the global mining sector by value with nine deals worth $4.7-billion.

This was followed by Macquarie and Sternship Advisers with three deals each worth $4.3-billion and $4.2-billion, respectively.

The Bank of Nova Scotia also occupied third position by volume, followed by RBC Capital Markets, with nine deals worth $2.2-billion.

Meanwhile, on the legal advisory side, Linklaters advised on six deals worth $6.4-billion, which was the highest among all the advisers.

Blake, Cassels & Graydon led in volume terms, having advised on 16 deals worth $3.2-billion.

Bose says while Linklaters advised on six deals, two of them were worth more than or equal to $1-billion. Blake, Cassels & Graydon, on the other hand, managed to advise only on a single deal that was worth more than or equal to $1-billion.

Although Jones Day also advised on the same number of deals as Linklaters, the firm’s transactions were worth $5.9-billion, meaning that it had to settle for the second position by value in GlobalData’s ranking of legal advisers for M&A in the global mining sector.

It was followed by McCarthy Tetrault with 11 deals worth $5.4-billion and DLA Piper with eight deals worth $5.4-billion.

Cassels Brock & Blackwell occupied second position by volume with 12 deals worth $1-billion, followed by McCarthy Tetrault.