Morgan Stanley climbs media M&A adviser ranks to No. 1 in 2020

Morgan Stanley's work on the pending acquisition of a minority equity stake in Universal Music Group Inc. by an investor group including Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Tencent Music Entertainment Group helped to propel the bank to the top of S&P Global Market Intelligence's media M&A adviser rankings by deal credit for 2020.

Morgan Stanley secured the No. 1 rank with aggregate deal credit of $6.32 billion from three media transactions involving U.S. or Canadian companies, including the $3.67 billion Universal Music stake deal as well as E.W. Scripps Co.'s $2.65 billion acquisition of ION Media Networks Inc. The third transaction on which Morgan Stanley advised, an investor group's purchase of a majority stake in Univision Communications Inc., did not have a disclosed deal value.

In comparison, Morgan Stanley placed fourth in the media M&A advisory ranking in 2019.

No. 2-ranked adviser Evercore Inc., which also worked on the Scripps-ION Media acquisition, moved up three places from its 2019 ranking, ending 2020 with $3.15 billion in aggregate deal credit from two transactions. In addition to the Scripps-ION Media deal, Evercore advised on Red Ventures LLC's $500 million acquisition of CNET Media Group.

Moelis & Co. LLC, which advised Scripps on the ION Media deal, dropped one spot from its 2019 rank to end 2020 in third place with $2.73 billion in deal credit from five transactions.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Methuselah Advisors LLC tied for fourth place among media M&A advisers, with $2.65 billion in deal credit each. While both firms served as advisers on the Scripps-ION Media acquisition deal, Goldman Sachs also worked on two other deals whose transaction values remained undisclosed.

Kalil & Co. Inc. was once again the top adviser by volume, working on 20 media deals in 2020 for aggregate deal credit of $59.3 million.

S&P Global Market Intelligence counted 596 total deals in the media sector in 2020, with an aggregate transaction or deal value of $22.64 billion. That compared to 631 deals in 2019, with a total value of about $55.58 billion.