Top 3 M&A Banks For Q1 (None of Which Are Goldman Sachs)

The first quarter 2011 global M&A advisory results are in -- and the top three advisers do not include perennial merger and acquisition leader Goldman Sachs.

Leaping over Lloyd & Co.'s shoulders was Morgan Stanley, which took the No. 1 spot for the first three months of the year. James Gorman and team advised on 81 announced M&A deals worth a total of $214.6 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

In second place was J.P. Morgan, which worked on 77 deals worth a total of $194.7 billion. Coming in third was Citi, with 60 deals worth $187.2 billion.

Goldman placed fourth, working on more deals (91) than any other bank in the top 25, but its deal volume amounted to just $173.8 billion.

Overall, thanks to a boost in deals in the financial services sector -- most notably AIG's $59 billion preferred share sale and NYSE Euronext's $10 billion sale to Deutsche Boerse -- the worldwide M&A market had its best quarter since the second of '08. And total volume ($799.8 billion) was up 55 percent versus first quarter 2010.

(Thomson Reuters)

(Related: Thanks to AT&T, JPMorgan Is Now M&A King on Wall Street)