Bud deal a boost for M&A banks in deal drought

By Megan Davies and Jessica Hall

NEW YORK/PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The $52 billion takeover deal for Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc. (BUD.N) is a nice boost for M&A bankers, who have been suffering from a sharp downturn in deal volume this year.

The takeover ranks as the largest all-cash transaction, eclipsing AT&T's (T.N) 2004 takeover of Cingular Wireless for $41 billion.

Banks typically take a total 1 percent to 2 percent advisory fee from deals. In a multibillion-dollar deal the percentage typically drops to the lower end of the scale.

With M&A volume about 40 percent lower than a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data, advising on the Anhueser-Busch deal was a welcome payout for the banks but it did not change the top reaches of the world mergers and acquisitions rankings, dominated by the usual suspects.

The banks advising Anheuser-Busch on the deal were top-ranked Goldman Sachs (GS.N), second-ranked Citigroup Global Capital Markets (C.N) and Moelis & Co.

Advising the buyer, Belgium-based InBev NV INTB.BR, were third-ranked JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Lazard Ltd (LAZ.N), Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) and BNP Paribas SA (BNPP.PA).

The deal was a particular boost for Lazard, pushing it up the M&A worldwide advisory rankings to No. 10 from 12 last year, according to Thomson Reuters data. The deal ranks as Lazard's fifth-biggest financial advisory assignment.

It was also a boost for Moelis & Co, pushing it back into the top 15.

Moelis had been ranked in the top 15 earlier this year with its role advising Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) on the proposed merger offer from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) but lost league table credit when the deal was officially withdrawn.

(Reporting by Megan Davies in New York and Jessica Hall in Philadelphia; Editing by Gary Hill)