Evercore Partners has cemented its position as the top boutique for mergers and acquisitions advice this year after landing a role on an $8.6bn (€5.7bn) deal in the US telecoms sector - its second multi-billion dollar mandate of the year.

Frontier Communications, which provides telephone, video and Internet services in 24 US states, said in a statement that it has agreed to acquire approximately 4.8 million access lines from US telecoms provider Verizon Communications in an all-stock transaction.