GE role helps JPMorgan top Canadian M&A advisor rankings

By Euan Rocha and John Tilak
TORONTO, Oct 2 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) JPM.N , the lead
advisor to General Electric (NYSE:GE) Co GE.N on the sale of its finance
assets, vaulted to the top of the Canadian M&A league tables
following a string of GE asset sales to Canadian buyers.
Thomson Reuters data released on Friday showed $191 billion
in mergers and acquisitions involving Canadian entities
year-to-date, up 28 percent from about $149 billion from a year
ago. The overall number of deals fell nearly 10 percent.
Royal Bank of Canada RY.TO and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) came in
second and third, respectively, the data showed.
A key driver was acquisitions of GE assets by Canadian
financial buyers like the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board,
Element Financial EFN.TO and Bank of Montreal
BMO.TO . ID:nL4N0ZF2IJ ID:nL1N0YV0E0 ID:nWNAB08A7E
The bullish data shrouded the fact that weak commodity
prices have muted deal activity in energy and mining.
"In the last quarter, I think it will continue to be active,
but in order for it to be really active we'd need a pick-up in
energy and mining activity," said David Rawlings, head of
JPMorgan Canada, adding that he is optimistic about deals
rebounding in those sectors in 2016, but not in the next three
months.
While Canadian M&A activity this year has been driven by
domestic firms hunting for deals that will help them grow
abroad, M&A activity in the latter part of the year will be
predicated on the macro market environment, bankers said.
"Our pipeline remains very strong, but it's a question of
getting deals announced and that depends on financing markets
and the conviction of boards and management teams around the
future," said Dougal Macdonald, head of Morgan Stanley Canada.
On top of the weakening Canadian dollar, the recent pullback
in the equity markets is also expected to dampen near-term deal
activity.
Volatility "is likely to cause people to pause before using
their shares as consideration in deals, so I'd expect there to
be a slight, and hopefully only temporary, decline over the last
quarter," said Grant Kernaghan, managing director of Canadian
investment banking for Citigroup (NYSE:C) C.N , which placed sixth just
behind BMO and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) GS.N .
Despite gains, some advisers highlighted the impact market
conditions were having on deals.
"The instability in the market over the past quarter has
tinged the optimism with a bit of uncertainty," said Cornell
Wright, co-head of M&A at law firm Torys.
Among law firms, Osler Hoskin & Harcourt topped M&A
activity, followed by Torys and McCarthy Tetrault.