Boutique investment bank Evercore said the Covid-19 crisis will "significantly and negatively" hit its business as mergers and acquisitions activity has been placed in the deep freeze over the past few weeks.

The advisory firm, which specialises in big ticket M&A deals, posted a 3% uptick in revenues for the first quarter of 2020 to $427m. But the bank's senior chairman and founder, Roger C. Altman, issued caution over the "unprecedented challenge" due to the pandemic.