Investment Banking Industry - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Investment banks act as intermediaries between an issuer of securities and the investing public, distributing an offering through their dealer networks or direct sales to clients. Capital raising, proprietary trading, and deal underwriting are some of the core activities typically carried out by investment banks.

The U.S. investment banking industry includes about 3,000 companies with combined annual revenue of about $140 billion. The 50 largest firms generate more than 90 percent of the industry’s revenue.

Investment banking industry has not fully recovered from the aftermath of 2008 financial crisis. The post-crisis period has witnessed a flurry of constraints on the industry in the form of more stringent and intrusive regulations such as Pillar 3, meeting BCBS 239 in addition to IFRS 9 requirements and many other mandatory regulatory requirements which have been impacting the business behaviour as a whole.

Fintech markets globally are evolving on a faster pace disrupting the end-to-end investment banking value chain. Blockchain is rapidly changing the face of cross-border lending activity.

Key Market Trends

2019 - The Year of Mega Deals yet with Lesser M&A Volume

During 2019, M&A volume has struggled due to worldwide economic and political uncertainties. Among all regions, the overall volume of the deals has witnessed an y-o-y decline of 0.5% in 2019. Americas (United States, Canada, Latin America) is the only region to have an increase in volume by 9.9% over those of 2018 reaching 2.16 Trillion USD with 11,511 deals.

Yet again, this year has witnessed mega deals ( deal size above 10 Billion USD) with a total of 1.27 Trillion USD deals making up 31% of the total volume of 2019 recording the highest percentage of mega deals ever in a year. 70% of mega deals in 2019 were announced in the first half of 2019 whereas the second half lost the momentum recording only 380.7 Billion USD mega deals.

Insights on IPOs in 2019 Worldwide

2019 is the year when Saudi Aramco IPO happened finally in Q4 boosting the IPO volume in the year-end. Saudi Aramco IPO raised a total of 26.5 Billion USD to become the largest IPO ever beating Alibaba's record of 25 Billion USD listing in September 2014.

In EMEA region, privatization trends have helped to boost the IPO proceeds for the year 2019. In the Asia-Pacific region, the secondary listing volume hit the jackpot in 2019 when 8 Chinese companies that are originally listed in Hong Kong have raised 11.7 billion USD. A total of 68.8 Billion USD has been raised via 381 IPOs in the year 2019 globally.

Competitive Landscape

The report includes an overview of not only the largest investment bankers by revenue earned, but also major boutique banks categorized by size, region, and industry focus operating in the market studied. In revenue terms, the industry seems to be a fragmented market and the largest player being J.P. Morgan as of December 2019, with a market share of 8.9%. But in terms of the assets under management (AUM) it is more like an oligopoly with a clear demarcation of top 3 players from that of others. Currently, some of the major players dominating the market studied, in terms of market share are presented here.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support