NEW YORK—The recently-merged Kekst CNC topped mergermarket's ranking of communications advisors to mergers and acquisitions during the first half of the year, working on 124 deals around the world, more than any other PR firm. New York-based Joele Frank Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher ranked number one in terms of the value of deals worked, handling transactions worth $398 billion.

Publicis-owned Kekst CNC beat out Sard Verbinnen (100 deals), Brunswick Group, Finsbury Hering Schuppener, and FTI Consulting in the publication’s ranking by volume of deals. Sard, Kekst, Brunswick and Abernathy MacGregor rounded out the top five by value.

And there were some interesting moves elsewhere in the ranking: Lambert Blicksilver (formed by the merger of Detroit-based Lambert Edwards and financial boutique Owen Blicksilver) soared from number 142 on the volume ranking to number 13, while Prosek Partners rose from number 44 on the value ranking to number 11—and cracked the top 20 of the volume ranking.

Kekst and Joele Frank were also top of the volume and value rankings in the US. The former beat out Sard and Joele Frank, while the latter came out ahead of Sard and Kekst.

In Europe, Finsbury Hering Schippener was number one in terms of deals worked, ahead of Brunswick and FTI, while Sard was number on in terms of value, with Kekst and Abernathy in the second and third spots.

FTI was number one in terms of volume in the UK, with Kekst topping the value table. In Germany, Hering Schuppener worked the most deals while Kekst again ranked number one in value. In France, local leader Image Sept was tops in terms of volume with Brunswick leading by value. In Spain, LLYC topped the volume ranking and Sard was number one by value.

FTI worked on more deals than any other agency in the Asia-Pacific region, ahead of Brunswick and Kekst. Prosek Partners was number one in terms of the value of deals worked in Asia, beating out Brunswick and FTI. In Japan, Sard topped both the volume and value rankings, ahead of Edelman and FTI in the former and Brunswick and Edelman in the latter.