A mandate advising Greece on its mammoth $263.1bn debt exchange has handed Blackstone and Lazard an almost unassailable lead at the top of the restructuring rankings for 2012, in what has been an otherwise quiet market for restructuring activity.

Completed distressed debt and bankruptcy activity globally totalled $364.1bn in the first nine months of the year, according to Thomson Reuters, up more than 200% from the same period last year.