2024 Houston Update
Will be discussing HTX energy overall over the 1/2 years. Biggest deals include Endeavor/Diamondback, Chesapeake/Southwestern, Occidental/CrownRock, Chevron/Hess, Exxon/Pioneer, ONEOK/Magellan, ConocoPhillips/Marathon, EQT/Equitrans, etc. There are sm others so sorry if deals r confusing. If I miss something, or anything is incorrect or noteworthy, comment.
JPM: Probably one of the best shops in terms of their deals, but would not want to be here as an analyst. They did Endeavor, Eni, Hess, Chesapeake. But most of work would be across cap markets and apparently return rates are low.
GS: Whale hunt like usual, bad by volume, good by deal amt. Is Suhail arguably the best energy banker atm? Endeavor, Southwestern, Hess, Pioneer, Crown Rock, etc. Also do a ton of capital markets as well.
Citi: Despite people leaving, MJ and rest of Citi Houston have still done a better job on culture, deals haven't been as 'horrible' as people expected. Heard bad things from people on the other side of deals, but they still continue to win in terms of public offerings/placements and M&A (Diamondback, ONEOK, Exxon-Pioneer last year. Haven't seen anything from ET, but I know it is split between Houston and NYC.
Jeff: The best in terms of volume, upstream team always busy (best A&D shop in Houston), and they might be top in total deal amt. Massive year, did Diamondback/ Endeavor deal and a ton of deals across 1bn-6bn. Jeff Houston will always be Jeff Houston, but heard culture has improved. ET team has done some good transactions so far w/ good volume.
MS: Similar to JPM and GS, but bit of a quieter year. Did Chevron and Pioneer deals last year, Marathon/Conoco deal this year. Leaner teams apparently, also do a lot of cap markets.
EVR: Heard culture is atrocious, but they have done some great deals this year. Did EnLink, Conoco, etc. Also do RX well in downturns. Probably the most solid 'EB' in Houston.
TPH/PWP: Had an okay year, did CrownRock and ONEOK. Volume is not high and they pitch often. They have the highest pay and good exits.
RBC: Lowkey underrated in terms of dealflow, arguably one of the best midstream groups due to Canadian presence. Regularly do deals with Enbridge, EQT, and Energy Transfer, and do well on cap markets side as well.
BofA: Not one of the best in Houston, but certainly not one of the worst. Did ONEOK and Southwestern, and cap markets deals too.
Barclays: Mid in comparison to how they used to be. Included on Equitrans/EQT, recent ONEOK deal, some others. Also do decent in capital markets.
WF: For all the stuff mentioned on here, they're underrated. Were included on APA Corp 10bn & Southwestern merger, but led some decent solo MM deals. Most of deal flow comes from cap markets as you would expect, being a debt shop.
Moelis: Now have Trauber and Laghari, ex Citi legends, but hasn't helped on O&G side. Did NexTier/Patterson OFS deal and Harbour/Wintershall Dea asset deal two years ago. Not sure how they staff, O&G dealflow is horrible, but they have done well in ET so far, and decent RX in downturns.
Petrie Partners: Exxon/Pioneer sets a high bar. Did recent Coterra Energy ~4bn deal. Also do other advisory work (joint ventures, some cap raising). Would compare to a shop like TIdal Partners - small volume, can win big but do small cap deals as well.
Intrepid (Financial Partners): Skip brings in all the deals, but it's cool they're a merchant bank. They do well in the MM space (Midstream specifically). Also do micro-cap investment management, maybe RX.
HL: Typical HL office. Did 3.8bn Vital deal, decent amt of volume, would guess most comes in form of privco's.
Guggenheim: Historically bad, not good in terms of dealflow. Did EQT Equitrans 35bn deal, Civitas last year and Diamond Noble, and apparently got some good SMDs, but we will see. ET team sits in SF I believe.
Piper Sandler: Still strong in the MM space, since they acquired Simmons they have been consistently one of the best OFS shops.
Lazard: Pretty bad deal flow, better than PJT and GHL tho. Did 2.4bn Tellurian deal and Eni deals combined at 15bn? Just hired a solid Citi MD so we'll see if that helps, heard culture is good.
PJT: They have done like 3 ~1bn deals in past year. Exxon/Denbury, Chevron/PDC. Whale hunt but don't win often, and if they do, it is as a secondary advisor.
Greenhill: Similar to PJT in terms of deal flow, maybe slightly worse. GHL, PJT and Lazard get pretty decent exits on account of elite boutique status.
I don't know that much about the rest of the shops, but I'll list them here and what I read online. Raymond James (Lower MM but solid), Stephens (like Piper has great OFS), MUFG (sponsors/lending/financing), KeyBanc Capital Markets (mid dealflow, renewables, which is a great group, sits in SF/NYC), Scotiabank (P&U & O&G), SocGen (Project Fin), Truist (O&G), Stifel, Baird, HSBC, CIBC, Mizuho, TD Securities (might just be corp. banking?), and England & Co.
Other boutiques ik are Pickering Energy Partners (mostly cap raising and investing) and PPHB (all verticals). Here r others I found on internet cannot comment at all if they're active but they are GulfStar Group, Energy & Industrial Advisory Partners, Acquest Advisors, Chiron Financial, Crutchfield Capital, Woodrock & Co, Romanchuck & Co, DGP Capital and M&S Fairway Capital Partners.
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here's a breakdown of the Houston energy investment banking landscape for 2024:
Top Performers:
Notable Boutiques and Specialists:
Underrated Players:
Struggling or Niche Players:
Other Observations:
This summary highlights the competitive and diverse nature of Houston's energy IB scene, with a mix of top-tier players, specialized boutiques, and emerging firms.
Sources: Personal Experience with Houston Energy IBD - Thoughts on Industry Outlook? (Long Post), 2014-2019 U.S. Energy M&A League Table, https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-banking/renewable-energy?customgpt=1, 2014-2019 U.S. Energy M&A League Table, Houston Investment Banking 2019
Who is hiring though?
SA 2026 is starting up now... HL & RBC normally kick off the process.
More like lateral
Any outlook on FT recruiting for 2026 Grads? When will process begin for Houston and will they be looking to recruit a lot or is it hard to tell with the current job market? Personally I see the energy m&a market to have strong growth in the coming years.
Bank I’m at now is growing, not sure if that’s in line w/ the rest of Houston, though I imagine trump wont be bad (energy M&A wise). Recruiting won’t start up until after SA offers are given or not. So probably in the fall/winter.
Thanks! My thoughts exactly w/ Trump in office now etc.
I was a 2025 grad and my full-time recruiting experience happened right after summer internships. It's mostly an informal process (despite the fact that applications open) but the way it worked was you network your way to the super days and things move extremely fast. BB go first, then EB, then everyone else. GS superday was mid August, within a week of offers being given. Hope this helps and good luck!
What were the main deals GS NYC NR worked on? I know they focus more on the energy, infra, and chemicals side... Do they do any O/G?
No O/G in NYC, its all out of Houston. NR is just a blanket term to cover chemicals, mining, etc
can someone please confirm how many of these do MBA associate recruiting? this would be appreciated thanks
Virtually all of them. Class sizes range from ~4 or 5 for the bigger places down to ~1 or 2 for the smaller places.
Congrats on the WF internship
If we're being real he was too nice to like 75% of banks on that list. There is like a $150mm-$200mm+ fee gap between the top handful of places and bottom third-ish in terms of M&A fee revenue. Energy is a pretty feast-or-famine industry group with a few dominant institutions and everyone else fighting for what's left.
But that's fine, these "Houston IB bank landscape" threads always end up insanely toxic and this one was well informed and well researched.
Figured I’d go easier on most of HTX. But M&A wise deals only go to a few main places (MS/JPM/GS, RBC, JEFF, EVR & TPH). Pretty hit-or-miss with the others with dealflow not being as consistent.
Yup, not complaining. Welcome change of pace. Not sure why the Houston threads are always so much more toxic than other industry group ranking threads. I suspect because it's such a "small" market and there's a greater sense of familiarity with other groups. In Houston you know several bankers and they know several bankers and you all do the exact same thing, so there's a greater degree of knowledge of what's going on at other places, who the rainmakers are, what shop does well at what vertical or subvertical etc. In NYC your friends at other banks and your coworkers friends at other banks likely do something else entirely from your coverage group.
End result in Houston is that everyone likes to dunk on each other.
Do Evercore analysts work across both RX and M&A
Yea. In good years I’d guess 9/10 deals would be M&A, and in bad years 9/10 would be RX.
This update is most definitely not anywhere near comprehensive. I don't know how you miss Evercore doing Enerplus/Chord for $11B or BofA on OXY/Crownrock Buyside for $12B.
Edit: Chord/Enerplus had Citi (lead) and WF/JPM with Chord and Evercore (lead) with RBC on the Enerplus side per press release
PXD/Exxon was Citi (lead) with Centerview for Exxon, GS (lead), MS, Petrie, and BofA for PXD per press release.
Chord Enerplus was a 4bn deal, and I tried to only cover deals over 10bn-ish.
True I forgot about BofA on CrownRock/Oxy and Exxon-Pioneer, but the deal is mentioned multiple times w all other banks. Didn’t touch on CVP b/c they were brought on from NYC as a specialist M&A advisor.
EVR was also on CHK/SWN, CVX/HES, CVX/PDC, SBOW/KTG/Crescent (I think lead on most if not all). Theyve also been on some of the largest private deals in the past couple years (Caerus, Ensign, Flywheel, PureWest). Very sweaty for juniors but one of the best energy practices rn
Any sense on the lateral market for ASOs in Houston? At a NY BB and internal transfer isn't an option, so I'm going to need to switch companies
Lateral market for associates is pretty consistent in Houston, always stuff popping up. I would expect more over the next few months as bonuses roll in and people leave. But you need to have:
- An understanding of O&G technical questions (nothing insane but know how to answer typical intern superday tech questions)
- A good story as to why you want to move to Houston
Those are both key and will be driven home at every point of the interview process.
Doable. Thanks
Would appreciate any inputs on HOU analyst lateral process. Currently at a MM shop in Houston, but want to lateral for culture reasons and to a bigger shop.
DM me
Bump
Calling Laghari a Citi legend is laughable. Plenty of threads on that guy doing zero or near zero deals at Guggenheim.
It’s kind of messed up but some of the guys I know from Citi/Gugg call Laghari, “Assghsri” lol
Why? Spill the tea
It's true that JEF is one of the most productive energy teams right now, however they also required COVID booster shots. I know a big part of why people want to do Texas banking is to stay well away from that so just passing along the info, do with it what you want.
Is this a joke or actually real? Can't tell but it's funny af
Can confirm boosters weren’t required. Initial shots were but not boosters. Also keep in mind that the JEF CFO died from COVID in the first month of it happening or so.
In Houston? I personally know multiple people at JEF NY and they absolutely were required and have no reason to lie to me.
jefferies houston is one of the most houston banks in houston, by which I mean it's overwhelmingly male, white, and the entire bullpen went to one of ~three high schools lol
this isn't a criticism, but my point is I don't think they of all people would be hounding anyone over booster shots
n/a
congrats on Intrepid
Intrepid is comically Lmaoo. Bottom tier bank, most haven’t even geard of it
Just bc people haven’t heard of it doesn’t mean it’s bad (Qatalyst as an ex). Honestly sick they’re a merchant bank and do midstream but wouldn’t want to be there since all dealflow relies on one person (Skip).
JPM, GS, JEF, EVR is the real list, plus maybe RBC
then there's a tier below this with banks that compete with the above in certain areas, aren't quite as as strong, but are still decent places or at least have a strong legacy and could turn it around similar to how EVR recovered from their dip (TPH, MS, Citi)
then you have a sea of struggle shops that just pitch random shit they would never win, lose bakeoffs (or don't get invited), are basically a cost-center that is on retainer until restructuring season hits, make all of their money off of right bookrunner bond deals, or spend a staggering amount of guaranteed money on a mafia don and his entire gang and still lose every upstream deal to JPM/GS/JEF/RBC
I agree. Definitely win the most historically and in the present
So who is the mafia Don and his gang?
n/a
Who leads O&G coverage for Citi and GS in London?
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