Merrill Lynch has stormed to the top of the European mergers and acquisitions advisory league table for the first half of this year, according to preliminary data from Dealogic.

Despite working on just 29 deals, compared with second-placed Goldman Sachs' 53 deals, Merrill climbed from fifth place at the end of last year and at the end of the first half of 2002. Clocking up $83.18bn (€72.16bn) worth of deals in the first half, Merrill's lead by deal value was narrow, with Goldman Sachs - 10th in the same period last year - close behind with $82.64bn of deals.