CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA—On the strength of third-quarter activity, UBS Investment Bank vaulted to the top of the rankings among financial advisers for REIT mergers and acquisitions in 2014, according to SNL Financial. UBS didn't place in the top three for the previous year, locally based SNL said.

The bank earned its top spot for '14 with a pair of deals in the healthcare space—NorthStar Realty Finance's $3.4-billion acquisition of Griffin-American Healthcare REIT II, which closed in December; and Ventas' pending $2.6-billion buy of American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust—as well as Select Income REIT's merger with Cole Corporate Income Trust. The $3.1-billion combination of the two net lease REITs was announced in early September, and is still pending.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch took the second slot in 2014's financial adviser rankings with about $4.6 billion in deal volume, with Morgan Stanley edging out Citigroup Global Markets for third place. BofA Merrill Lynch had last year's third-largest deal tally by volume, while Morgan Stanley ranked ninth and Citigroup ranked fifth.

Although Wells Fargo Securities and Goldman Sachs tied with UBS for the number of M&A transactions, SNL says the combined value of the two banks' M&A deals was less than the $7.5-billion tally UBS racked up. Others in the top 10 by dollar volume included CSCA Capital Advisors, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Robert A. Stanger & Co. and PJT Capital Markets.

Most of the companies in SNL's year-end rankings for number of M&A deals in the REIT space got there with only a single deal to their credit. In addition to KeyBanc and PJT, others that advised on a single M&A transaction each included Green Oak Real Estate, Hentschel & Co., Centerview Partners, J.P. Morgan Securities, RCS Capital Corp., Barclays Capital, Jefferies LLC, BMO Capital Markets Corp., RBC Capital Markets, Duff & Phelps and Houlihan Lokey.

In the legal adviser rankings, Morris Manning & Martin LLP maintained its lead from Q3 by total assigned deal value at $5.5 billion, although Venable LLP, with a smaller dollar total at $4.67 billion, topped the list in terms of number of deals. Morris Manning's tally was due to its advisory of Cole Corporate Income in the SIR deal, Griffin-American II in its sale to Northstar; and Cole Credit Property Trust in its pending deal with American Realty Capital Properties.

Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz came in third place among law firms, having provided legal counsel in two deals with a total value of about $4.14 billion. Rounding out the top 10 by dollar volume, each with an M&A deal apiece, were Latham & Watkins, Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, Sidley Austin, Bryan Cave, Doran Derwent and Kaye Scholer.