Four big transactions were announced, including Abbott Labs' $25 billion deal for St. Jude Medical, AbbVie's $5.8 billion deal for Stemcentrx, Sanofi's unsolicited $9.3 billion bid for Medivation, and NBCUniversal's $3.8 billion deal for DreamWorks.
Among the banks that can expect big winnings in fees are Evercore, Guggenheim Securities, and Centerview Partners.
Morgan Stanley also had a big day, advising both Stemcentrx and Sanofi.
Here's the breakdown of advisers, with the independent advisory shops highlighted:
Abbott Labs - St. Jude Medical
- Abbott: Evercore (lead adviser) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch
- St. Jude: Guggenheim Securities
AbbVie - Stemcentrx
- Stemcentrx: Morgan Stanley
Sanofi - Medivation
- Sanofi: Morgan Stanley
- Medivation: Evercore and JPMorgan
NBCUniversal - DreamWorks
- DreamWorks: Centerview Partners
Boutique banks have been taking big deals from their larger rivals in the last couple of years. Three boutiques - Evercore, Centerview, and Moelis - ranked in the top 15 banks for global M&A revenue in the first quarter.
Moelis, for its part, just reported a killer first quarter, with record revenues, up 27% from last year.
Evercore lists around 80 senior managing directors (MD) in corporate advisory globally on its website. At Centerview, meanwhile, there are 30 partners listed on the website.