By Pritam Biswas and Lananh Nguyen

(Reuters) – Jefferies Financial’s profit more than tripled in the fourth quarter as the investment bank charged higher fees for advising on transactions and underwriting activity remained strong, it reported Wednesday

Buoyant markets, falling interest rates and the prospect of lighter regulation under the incoming Trump administration have boosted business sentiment toward mergers and acquisitions. Equity and debt offerings also increased in the second half of 2024.

Global investment banking revenue rose 26% to $86.8 billion in 2024, led by North America, which posted a 33% increase, according to data from Dealogic. Jefferies earned the seventh highest fees of the banks during the same period.

“What will drive corporate activity, private equity activity and global investment banking and capital markets activity will be M&A and IPOs,” said Brian Friedman, president of Jefferies. to Reuters in an interview.

“We are in a positive and increasingly attractive period.”

In the fourth quarter, the company’s investment banking revenue rose nearly 73% to $986.8 million, while capital markets revenue rose 34% to $651.7 million of dollars

Bankers expect global deal volumes to top $4 trillion in 2025, the highest in four years, boosted by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of less regulation, lower corporate taxes and a position broadly favorable to companies.

Last month, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told a Reuters industry conference that trading in stocks and M&A could exceed the 10-year average by 2025.

Jefferies’ total revenue was $1.96 billion, up from $1.2 billion in the year-ago period.

The New York-based bank’s net income attributable to common shareholders was $205.7 million, or 91 cents per share, for the three months ended Nov. 30. That compares with $65.6 million, or 29 cents per share, a year earlier.

Shares of Jefferies, which rose about 1% after the bell, have gained 94% in 2024, outperforming big rivals Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as well as the broader equity markets.

Jefferies’ earnings are closely watched by analysts and investors as a precursor to big bank earnings, which start next week.

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bangalore and Lananh Nguyen in New York; Editing by Alan Barona)