Moelis has won its first M&A advisory mandate from Pfizer – and fellow boutique Centerview Partners its second – as the US pharmaceutical group revealed an advisory line-up dominated by independent firms for its $160 billion agreed acquisition of Ireland's Allergan, which would be the second-largest takeover of all time.

Pfizer and Allergan announced on November 23 that they had struck a deal to combine their two companies in an inversion that will re-domicile Pfizer in Ireland, although the enlarged company - which will be named Pfizer - will have its operational headquarters in New York.