S&P Global Market Intelligence's rankings of top media and telecommunications M&A financial advisers for the U.S. and Canadian sector as of Sept. 30 remained unchanged from the previous quarter as dealmaking in the sectors slowed.
Moelis & Co. LLC remained the top media M&A adviser with $9.42 billion in aggregate deal credit from five transactions in the first nine months of 2022, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The largest contribution to Moelis' deal credit came from advising hedge fund manager Standard General LP on its planned takeover of broadcasting company TEGNA Inc., which has an enterprise value of about $8.46 billion, including assumed debt.
In addition to its work on the TEGNA deal, Moelis advised The Chernin Group LLC on the acquisition of Red Arrow Studios' U.S. assets from ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE for $200 million. The investment bank also advised Cox Media Group Inc. for its sale of 37 TV stations to Imagicomm Communications LLC for $488 million.
RBC Capital Markets LLC ranked second among media M&A financial advisers, with an aggregate deal credit of $9.04 billion from two transactions, including the TEGNA deal. RBC Capital advised on Standard General's $300.2 million acquisition of WFXT-DT from Apollo Global Management Inc.'s unit Cox Media.
The remaining three TEGNA deal advisers — Evercore Inc., Greenhill & Co. Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC — were tied for third place.
Patrick Communications held the top advisory spot for media M&A in terms of the number of deals. The company advised on 14 deals through September 30, with an aggregate deal value of $34.8 million.
S&P Global Market Intelligence tallied 486 deals in the U.S. and Canadian media sector in the first nine months of 2022, with a total transaction or deal value of $13.79 billion. That compared to 570 deals in the first three quarters of 2021, with a total value of $137.71 billion.
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Telecom M&A advisers
In the telecom sector, 131 deals were announced in the U.S. and Canada during the first three quarters, with a total transaction or deal value of $4.35 billion. The sector saw 161 deals with a total value of $18.07 billion in the same period last year.
The Bank Street Group LLC was the top telecom adviser based on deal credit.
Bank Street Group advised Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc. for the sale of Kansas City assets, including 19,000 consumer subscribers, 13,000 broadband subscribers and 1,900 commercial subscribers, to Alinda Capital Partners LLC for $90 million. Bank Street Group also served as an adviser to BullsEye Telecom Inc., which was acquired by Lingo Management LLC for an undisclosed amount.
