A slowdown in buyouts and a rise in takeover activity outside the US and Europe have sparked a dramatic shake-up in the mergers and acquisitions advisory pecking order this year, with some banks surging up the rankings and a Chinese institution breaking into the top echelons for the first time.

Mergermarket preliminary figures for the first half of the year revealed that no new banks have broken the stranglehold of the top 10 advisers on global deals at the end of last year.