The “Global Mergers & Acquisitions Review: Full Year 2020/Financial Advisors” from Refinitiv contains M&A statistics and also rankings for worldwide providers of fairness opinions. Here are the top five providers (based on the number of transactions) of announced fairness opinions rendered in the United States:

1. Stout (2019 rank: 2);
2. Duff & Phelps (2019 rank: 1);
3. Houlihan Lokey (2019 rank: 3);
4. J.P. Morgan (2019 rank: 4); and
5. Piper Sandler (2019 rank: 9).

Globally, the top five providers of announced fairness opinions are:

1. CITIC (2019 rank: 8);
2. Duff & Phelps (2019 rank: 1);
3. (tie) Houlihan Lokey (2019 rank: 4);
4. (tie) Stout (2018 rank: tied for 3); and
5. J.P. Morgan (2018 rank: 2).