Morgan Stanley & Co. had the leading position among top bank advisers at the midway point of 1995, according to SNL Securities Inc.
The New York investment bank advised on five deals valued at $10.9 billion. Included among those deals was Morgan Stanley's representation of Banco Santander, the principal shareholder of First Fidelity Bancorp, which agreed to be bought by First Union Corp. in June.
The lead advisers to the banks on that transaction - the largest bank merger is U.S. history - were Lazard Freres & Co. for First Union, and Goldman Sachs & Co. for First Fidelity. Goldman ranked second among advisers, and Lazard third.
The showing marks a significant improvement for Morgan Stanley from 1994, when it ranked 12th at year's end. The investment bank has beefed up its bank advisory team, and has been able to cash in on several high- profile relationships.
Morgan Stanley's head of financial institutions, Donald Moore, used his connections at Shawmut National to land that bank's agreed upon sale to Fleet Financial Group.
The investment bank also wrote a fairness opinion for National Australia Bank in its purchase of Michigan National, and advised Crestar Financial Corp., in its purchase of Loyala Capital.
Coming in fourth was Salomon Brothers Inc., largely on the strength of its representation of Fleet Financial, and of FirstFed Michigan in its merger of equals with Charter One Financial.
However, the lead adviser on Fleet, Richard Barrett, has since moved to UBS Securities along with several other Salomon bankers. There the new team advised West One Bancorp in its sale to U.S. Bancorp. UBS, which heretofore had been a nonplayer among bank advisers, placed seventh.
CS First Boston ranked fifth, advising National Australia Bank and U.S. Bancorp in their acquisitions. CS First Boston also advised on a number of high profile branch transactions, but such deals are not included in SNL's rankings.
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., the bank- and thrift-only boutique, ranked sixth, based largely on its representation of Michigan National. KBW advised on 10 deals, the most of any top-10 adviser.
Robinson Humphrey, the Atlanta-based investment banking subsidiary of Smith Barney, put in one of its best showings ever to rank eighth.
The unit advised Coral Gables Fedcorp on its sale to First Union Corp., and Intercontinental Bank on its sale to NationsBank Corp.
Merrill Lynch placed ninth in the first half, after ranking fourth for the full year last year. The group has eliminated its separate thrift group, long a strong suit for the company.
In tenth was Montgomery Securities, largely on the strength of is role in the Charter One deal.
In a notable decline, J.P. Morgan & Co. fell to 30th place, after placing sixth in 1994. The bank has made a sustained effort to make a name for itself in investment banking, so its ranking have been measuring sticks for how well the bank has done.
In general, it was not a good first half for banks in the bank advisory business. Whereas a number of banks placed well in 1995, only Chemical Securities and J.P. Morgan showed up in the rankings this year.
Chemical Securities placed 11th, but only because it advised its parent, Chemical Banking Corp., on it sale of it southern New Jersey branch system.
Smaller advisers did not fare as well either. Last year three regional advisers found their way into the top 10. In the first half of 1996 there were only two.
As deals have become larger, the traditional, blue-chip investment banks have stolen most of the pie. Last year, with deals smaller, regional advisers received more action. For example, Wheat First Securities, after placing eighth last year, fell to 20th place in the first half. Also suffering a decline was Lehman Brothers Inc. After placing seventh last year, the firm fell to 12th in the first half this year.
Some notable improvements included Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., which improved to 25th in the first half, up from 39th last year.
Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co., which did not place last year, finished 15th in the first half.
