Rothschild & Co advised on the most M&A deals in the consumer sector in the first half of the year, data shows.

According to GlobalData figures, Rothschild & Co. worked on 11 transactions in the opening six months of the year, including as an adviser to McCormick & Co. on its planned combination with much of Unilever’s food assets.

Aurojyoti Bose, lead analyst at GlobalData, Just Food’s parent, said: “There was a marginal improvement in the total number of deals advised by Rothschild & Co., which helped its ranking by volume improve from second position in H1 2025 to the top position in H1 2026. It also held the fourth position by value in H1 2026.”

Goldman Sachs, which topped a league table measuring the value of deals, was also part of the Unilever-McCormick deal, working with the UK FMCG giant.

Three banks each worked on ten deals during the first half of 2026 – Morgan Stanley, PwC and Houlihan Lokey.

Morgan Stanley was third when measuring deal value, with Citi in second. Both were contracted on the transaction between McCormick and Unilever.

GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of sources including company websites and advisory firm websites. A dedicated team of analysts monitors all these sources to gather in-depth details for each deal, including adviser names. 

To ensure further robustness to the data, the company also seeks submissions of deals  from advisers.