이 기사는 2022년 01월 06일 08시09분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Morgan Stanley ranked first in the South Korea's M&A financial advisor league table in 2021 after fierce competition with runner-up Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Top 10 investment banks of the league table compiled by the bell advised on South Korean deals totaling 83.2 trillion won ($69.5 billion) in 2021. Of the total, Morgan Stanley advised on 11 deals worth 14.2 trillion won.

BoA Merrill Lynch took second spot with deals worth 10.9 trillion won. It jumped to rank second at the last minute thanks to the first closing of SK Hynix’s acquisition of Intel’s NAND memory chip business, which was completed on December 30.

Major deals Morgan Stanley advised on included Delivery Hero’s 4.8 trillion won acquisition of Woowa Brothers, Samsung Display’s 1.3 trillion won sale of assets in Suzhou, China, the sale of South Korea's video chat app Hyperconnect (1.93 trillion won), and the sale of eBay Korea (1.78 trillion won).

Other deals included sales of TaylorMade (975.6 billion won), JobKorea (900 billion won), and CJ Rokin (872.7 billion won). Morgan Stanley also advised on deals involving a sale of JTBC Studios’ new shares (300 billion won) and a sale of a stake in Hyundai Doosan Infracore (425 billion won).

Morgan Stanley is hoping to retain its top position in the M&A financial advisory league table in 2022. The U.S. investment bank sat atop the table by a wide margin in terms of announced deals, which were worth 19.3 trillion won. One of the largest deals yet to be closed is Cigna Group's 5 trillion won sale of LINA Life Insurance. Morgan Stanley is providing financial advice on the deal to Cigna Group.

Credit Suisse ranked third, advising on 15 transactions with a combined value of 10.5 trillion won. The investment bank advised SK Hynix together with Citigroup Global Markets Securities and Deutsche Bank on its acquisition of Intel’s NAND business.

JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs came as fourth and fifth, advising on deals worth less than 10 trillion won each. JP Morgan advised KKR on the US buyout firm's 2.4 trillion won investment in SK E&S. Goldman Sachs advised on Woowa Brothers and eBay Korea deals.

Samil PwC and Samjong KPMG advised on 77 and 55 deals, respectively, securing sixth and seventh positions. (Reporting by Gyoung-tae Kim)