Top Consumer and Retail Investment Banks in 2026

The top consumer and retail investment banks are Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan on deal value, with Houlihan Lokey and Rothschild & Co leading on deal count. In GlobalData’s 2025 consumer ranking, Morgan Stanley advised on $79.71bn of deals and Houlihan Lokey on 30 transactions.

The two rankings measure different work. If you are choosing a group to join or an adviser to hire, compare banks on the deal size and sub-sector you will actually cover.

Top consumer and retail investment banks at a glance

The table groups the leading banks by where they win consumer and retail mandates.

How consumer and retail league tables work

A league table ranks advisers by the total value of deals they advised on or by the number of deals. Every adviser on a deal is usually credited with its full value.

Value rankings favour the few banks hired on the largest deals. Count rankings favour banks that run many smaller sales.

GlobalData publishes separate tables for the consumer sector and the retail sector. Its 2025 consumer ranking by value, reported by Just Drinks, was:

• Morgan Stanley: $79.71bn across 9 deals
• Goldman Sachs: $65.13bn of deals
• JPMorgan: $57.3bn across 11 deals
• Centerview Partners: $56.11bn of deals
• PJT Partners: $48.7bn across 2 deals

The same 2025 data ranked advisers by count:

• Houlihan Lokey: 30 deals, also first by count in 2024
• Rothschild & Co: 20 deals
• Spayne Lindsay: 17 deals
• Goldman Sachs: 16 deals
• Lazard and Deloitte: 15 deals each

Goldman Sachs is the only bank in the top five of both lists. Deloitte is the only accounting firm near the top of the count table.

Retail adviser rankings

Retail deals form a smaller table with the same large banks at the top. GlobalData’s 2025 retail ranking by value, reported by Retail Insight Network, was JPMorgan ($44.5bn), Morgan Stanley ($37.9bn), Goldman Sachs ($33.2bn), Citi ($29.2bn) and UBS ($28.4bn).

By count, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Rothschild & Co each advised on 11 retail deals. JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs advised on 9 each.

JPMorgan often pairs advice with financing. On 3G Capital’s take-private of Skechers, J.P. Morgan was 3G’s exclusive financial adviser and JPMorgan Chase Bank committed the debt. Skechers used Greenhill, a Mizuho affiliate, as its exclusive adviser.

The banks on the largest consumer deals

The adviser line-ups on recent large consumer deals show how the value table is built:

One deal can carry a bank’s whole year. PJT Partners’ $48.7bn across two consumer deals in 2025 equals the Kenvue enterprise value.

The McCormick deal is a Reverse Morris Trust (a spin-off and merger structured to be tax-free for the seller). Unilever receives $15.7bn in cash, and Unilever and its shareholders together own 65% of the combined company. The price is about 13.8x Unilever Foods’ fiscal 2025 EBITDA. Goldman Sachs and Citi, advisers on opposite sides of this deal, took the top two places by consumer value in H1 2026.

Worked example: valuing a cash and stock offer

Kenvue shareholders receive $3.50 in cash plus 0.14625 Kimberly-Clark shares for each Kenvue share. Kimberly-Clark put the implied value at $21.01 per share, based on its closing price on 31 October 2025. Kimberly-Clark expects the deal to close in the second half of 2026. Start by splitting the price into its cash and stock parts.

• Implied value per Kenvue share = $21.01
• Stock component = $21.01 – $3.50 = $17.51
• Implied Kimberly-Clark share price = $17.51 / 0.14625 = $119.73
• Stock share of consideration = $17.51 / $21.01 = 83%

With 83% of the price in stock and a fixed exchange ratio, Kenvue holders carry Kimberly-Clark’s share price risk until closing. As an example, test a 10% fall in Kimberly-Clark’s shares:

• New Kimberly-Clark share price = $119.73 x 0.90 = $107.76
• Stock component = 0.14625 x $107.76 = $15.76
• Value per Kenvue share = $15.76 + $3.50 = $19.26

A 10% fall in the buyer’s shares cuts the offer value by about 8%. The target’s advisers run this test for the board. The buyer’s advisers model the earnings effect of the new shares.

Mid-market specialists in consumer and retail

Below the megadeal tier, specialist and independent banks lead on deal count. Many organise by sub-sector, so a team works repeatedly with the same buyers.

• Houlihan Lokey: first by consumer deal count in both 2024 and 2025. Its Consumer, Food & Retail Group had nearly 130 financial professionals across New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, London, Munich, Milan and Zurich as of mid-2024, with a team for restaurants, convenience stores and other multi-unit businesses.
• Rothschild & Co: second by consumer count in 2025 and first in H1 2026 with 11 deals. It also advised McCormick on the Unilever Foods deal, so it competes in both tiers.
• Lazard: 15 consumer deals in 2025 and lead adviser to Ferrero on WK Kellogg, a $23.00 per share cash deal at a 40% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average price.

For more on this tier, see our list of the best middle market investment banks and the top lower middle market investment banks.

What is driving consumer and retail deal flow

PwC expects global consumer markets deal volumes to fall 12% in 2026, with values down about 2%. Megadeals above $5bn made up 47% of deal value in 2026 so far, against 39% in 2025 and 23% in 2024.

Two trends shape the mandates banks are pitching for:

• Portfolio reshaping: large corporates are selling non-core units in beverages, luxury and consumer health. Unilever’s sale of its foods business to McCormick drove a 53% rise in EMEA deal value in PwC’s figures.
• Private equity exits: PwC says private equity exit backlogs, take-privates and succession in founder-led and family businesses could add deal supply. That work feeds the count leaders.

The shift towards megadeals favours the bulge brackets and elite boutiques in the value tables. Take-privates such as Skechers also need debt, and our ranking of the top leveraged finance banks covers the lenders on that side.

How to choose a consumer and retail bank

Use the table that matches the deals you want to work on. A value table shows who advises boards on the largest mergers. A count table shows who runs the most sale processes.

If you are recruiting, check three things for each bank:

• Deal size: megadeal teams give you board-level exposure on fewer live deals. Mid-market teams give you more full processes from teaser to signing.
• Sub-sector: food and drink, beauty and personal care, restaurants and retail each have their own buyers and valuation norms. The sub-sector team is a better guide to your work than the consumer label.
• Client mix: banks that run many private equity sales build sponsor relationships, which helps if your next step is a buyout fund.

If you are a seller choosing an adviser, ask for the bank’s recent deals in your sub-sector and size band, then ask who on the team ran them. Our guide to the best investment banks for analysts compares training and exits, and our rankings of the top industrials investment banks and top healthcare investment banks show how other sectors compare.

FAQ

Which bank is number one for consumer M&A?

On value, Morgan Stanley led GlobalData’s 2025 consumer ranking with $79.71bn across nine deals, and Goldman Sachs led in H1 2026. On deal count, Houlihan Lokey was first in both 2024 and 2025 with 30 deals last year. Rothschild & Co took the count lead in H1 2026 with 11 deals.

What is the difference between consumer and retail coverage?

Consumer coverage handles companies that make branded products, such as food, drinks, household goods and beauty. Retail coverage handles companies that sell to shoppers, such as store chains, e-commerce and restaurants. Many banks combine both in one group, and Houlihan Lokey runs a single Consumer, Food & Retail Group.

Is consumer and retail a good group for investment banking analysts?

Yes. The group sees large corporate carve-outs, cash and stock mergers and a steady flow of private equity sales. That gives you practice on merger models, sell-side processes and leveraged buyouts.

Which banks lead mid-market consumer deals?

Houlihan Lokey (30 deals), Rothschild & Co (20) and Spayne Lindsay (17) led GlobalData’s 2025 consumer count table, ahead of Goldman Sachs (16) and Lazard (15). Accounting firms also feature, with Deloitte on 15 deals in 2025 and PwC on 10 in H1 2026. These advisers run many smaller sale processes.

Conclusion

The top consumer and retail investment banks are Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan by deal value, with Houlihan Lokey and Rothschild & Co leading by deal count. A few megadeals such as Kenvue and Unilever Foods decide the value tables each year. Pick the ranking that matches the deal size and sub-sector you want, and judge each bank by its recent deals in that niche.

P.S. If you plan to contact consumer and retail bankers about a role or a mandate, the Investment Banking Contacts Database [Global] lists coverage teams by bank. You will find other tools you might like in our Premium Resources, and for weekly finance updates and the latest financial reports, subscribe to the Private Equity Bros newsletter.

Sources

• Kimberly-Clark to Acquire Kenvue, Creating a $32 Billion Global Health and Wellness Leader
• McCormick to Combine with Unilever’s Foods Business, Creating a Preeminent Global Flavor-Focused Company
• Ferrero to Acquire WK Kellogg Co
• Skechers Agrees to be Acquired by 3G Capital
• Global M&A trends in consumer markets: 2026 mid-year outlook
• Morgan Stanley, Houlihan Lokey top consumer M&A advisor ranks
• JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley top 2025 retail M&A advisory rankings