Every industry has rankings, who is at the top. The reasons they are important often times the top companies on the rankings list has the greatest margins or can make profits. If you are top of the list, every other company is the competition, but why are the companies at the top and can stay there? In the financial world, the investment banks are what every MBA graduate looks at.

In an article Dawn Kopecki and Anousha Sakoui of Reuters, Goldman Sachs Group once again dominated the league tables for global deal making in 2025, taking market share and the top spot.

The rise of the $10 billion year, there were 68 last year totaling $1.5 trillion, more than double the year prior according to LSEG data. Goldman secure its No 1 ranking advising on 38 of those deals, with at total $1.48 trillion in total volume of deals advised on.

Goldman’s Global co-head of M&A Stephan Feldgoise told clients it was an extraordinary year. Goldman ranked No 1 in 2 key areas: M&A fee revenue and overall value of the deals it worked on, gaining market share in both areas. Goldman’s fees were $4.6 billion JPMorganChase was $3.1 billion; Morgan Stanley $3 billion; Citigroup was $2 billion and Evercore was $1.7 billion.

In terms of volume of deals, Goldman, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley held 1st, 2nd and 3rd spots. followed by Bank of America and Citibank.

For M&A with any involvement of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Goldman’s share was 44.7%.

While Goldman dominated the total M&A, it was not involved the 2 biggest deals – Union Pacific purchase of $88.2 billion purchase of Norfolk Southern and the bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery.

JPMorgan was able to Goldman as the highest-paid global investment bank after factoring in fees from equities and debt capital markets, ranking in $10.1 billion in overall banking fees compared to $8.9 billion for Goldman, according to LSEG.

Charles Ruck, the global chair of the corporate department at LSEG No. 1 ranked legal adviser Latham & Watkins attributed the rising number of large deals to size creep. And the market is even ripe for more consolidation. The pipeline is full.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every industry has rankings and rankings gives you information. Who is the top 3 companies? who is most consistent? why are they there? what does the future look like? are the rankings similar to the year before – as a long-term investor you are invested in consistency of making profits, rankings will tell you information. Who are the rising stars?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.