Goldman Sachs seizes M&A crown with $US63bn deal spree

Goldman Sachs has topped the league table for deals, working on the proposed buyout of Santos and as an adviser to AirTrunk.

Goldman Sachs has topped the league table for the 2025 financial year to date when it comes to deals, with the Wall Street powerhouse working on $US63.4bn ($97.1bn) worth of announced and completed mergers and acquisitions.

Goldman Sachs was on two of the blockbuster transactions for fiscal 2025, including the proposed buyout of Santos for $US24.4bn including net debt by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and The Carlyle Group, and as adviser to AirTrunk, for which Blackstone and its backers finalised a $US16bn purchase.

Zac Fletcher, Goldman Sachs’ co-head of investment banking for Australia and New Zealand, attributed the position to being on the largest deal of the year as defence adviser to Santos, its commitment to local client coverage and relationship building, combined with the offering of its global franchise in terms of network and capital.

He said market volumes were buoyant and while deals were spread out across various sectors, there was a trend towards big deals in resources, technology and infrastructure.

A number of major buyouts involved gold companies at a time that the commodity price was at high levels, while artificial intelligence was driving data centre infrastructure investment, and Santos was bid for in an environment of a rising oil price as energy security grabs the focus amid rising geo political tensions.

AI’s high energy demands and the energy transition were also driving investment in energy and energy infrastructure.

Rising interest rates have been a drag on activity since 2022, but with rates now set to fall, an increase in activity is expected to continue, Mr Fletcher said.

Consumer companies were a smaller portion of the market, but were less actively bid for as consumers reined in spending.

“Activity has resumed,” Mr Fletcher said of the current state of the deal making environment.

Goldman Sachs secured almost 46 per cent of the market share with 31 deals.

In second place was Macquarie Capital, with 46 deals worth $US39bn, accounting for just over 28 per cent of the market share, followed by Citi with $US32.7bn and Morgan Stanley with $US30bn.

Goldman has displaced UBS, which came in at first place last year with Goldman Sachs the league table runner up, according to LSEG data.

The US bank also topped the Australia league table this financial year for completed transactions.

Other blockbuster mergers and acquisitions announced during the 2025 financial year included the sale of Anglo American’s Queensland coal mines to Peabody Energy for almost $US3.8bn; Vocus Group’s purchase of TPG Telecom assets for $US3.5bn; Northern Star’s purchase of rival gold miner De Grey for almost $US2.7bn; the purchase of building materials provider Brickworks by majority shareholder Soul Patts for almost $US2.6bn; and Gold Fields purchase of Gold Road Resources for $US2.4bn.

Completed deals were Sigma’s $US6.2bn purchase of Chemist Warehouse; ANZ’s $US3.3bn purchase of Suncorp Bank; Saint Gobain’s $US2.9bn purchase of CSR; and DAZN Group’s $US2.1bn purchase of News Corp’s Foxtel.

Deal value was up almost 66 per cent last year from the prior 12 months to $US138.3bn, but the number of deals fell 12.3 per cent to 1787, LSEG data showed.