Financial News and data provider Dealogic have created rankings looking at the 10-year performance of advisers attacking and defending hostile takeover bids. Our focus on the defending banks, ‘Keeping the Barbarians from the Gate’, was published on May 23. Here, we rank the success of those on other side of the fight.

In hostile takeovers, the risks are high but the rewards can be great. The role of the M&A adviser in contested takeovers is vital, because unwelcome approaches face a high chance of failure. They can be rejected by angry shareholders, regulators or even governments. Over the past 10 years, only 38% of hostile bids globally were successful.