Houlihan Lokey, Lincoln International, Jefferies Financial Group, William Blair and Piper Sandler Cos. rank as the top five most active M&A investment banks in 2019, based on the volume of completed private equity-backed deals in the U.S., according to PitchBook.

Besides advising on M&A deals, the investment banks on the top 10 list also had a busy year with acquisitions of their own in 2019, including two acquisitions by Houlihan Lokey and three by Stifel Financial. Piper Sandler Cos., was created when Minneapolis-based Piper Jaffray Cos. acquired New York-based Sandler ONeill & Partners in a deal representing more than half of Piper Jaffrays million market capitalization. The firm also had another acquisition in 2019 and sold a company to exit the traditional asset management business.

Here are Mergers & Acquisitions profiles of the 10 firms that led the league tables in a robust year for dealmaking.

Editors Note: This story is a collaboration between Mergers & Acquisitions and PitchBook. The profiles are reported and written by Mergers & Acquisitions, and the deal count and ranking data comes from PitchBook. We use the data available at press time. This story was compiled based on the data available on Feb. 14, 2020.

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Top investment banks for PE-backed deals in 2019: Houlihan Lokey led the pack - Mergers & Acquisitions