It’s been a tough first quarter for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) bankers, but a handful of firms have managed to keep busy.
Some of the smallest M&A shops have done particularly well for themselves.
Evercore Partners, Centerview Partners, and Moelis & Co. brought in the most revenue among boutique banks in the first quarter of 2016, according to Dealogic.
Evercore earned $144.2 million in M&A revenues, with a 2.9% share, while Centerview earned $123 million and Moelis earned $94.6 million.
The Q1 revenue numbers include deals that were announced in earlier quarters.
The numbers are especially impressive when one considers the size of these firms. Evercore had about 1,000 employees in 2013, while Centerview employs between 200 and 225 people. Moelis has about 650 employees.
The pool of senior staff is small still. Evercore lists around 80 senior managing directors (MD) in corporate advisory globally on its website, putting revenue per senior MD at around $1.75 million in the first three months of the year.
At Centerview, meanwhile, there are 30 partners listed on the website, putting revenue at around $4 million per partner over the first quarter.
Evercore’s revenues came from its work on Avago’s $36 billion deal for Broadcom, Abbott’s deal for Alere, and Shire’s deal for Dyax, among others.
Centerview worked on Johnson Controls’ bid for Tyco International, the group of investors including Mondelez International’s deal for Keurig Green Mountain, and Mylan’s bid for Meda.
Moelis, meanwhile, worked on Dentsply International’s deal for Sirona Dental Systems, Zoomlion’s bid for Terex, and CVC Capital and Canada Pension Plan’s deal for Petco, among others.
Despite the boutique banks’ relatively small sizes, all three of the top firms ranked among the top companies for global M&A revenue in Q1 as well.
Evercore ranked No. 8 overall, while Centerview ranked No. 12 and Moelis No. 14.