Best Energy Investment Banking Groups?
Saw the TPH vs. Jefferies HOU debate, and was just wondering where the best energy groups are at because I feel like it's a pretty consolidated industry at the top no? In terms of criterion I'd say pay, hours (long at all the top firms it seems), deal flow, exit opps (both TX and NY--would assume different per firm), culture/people, which verticals they're best in, and most technically demanding firms would all be good to have color on.
Edit: Might get shit for asking a question that's been answered on WSO before but figure landscape has probably changed in the recent years.
Bump. Interested to hear about Moelis and Evercore.
Both Evercore and Moelis have fallen off tremendously in the past year
Both had lights out years during the COVID RX wave but that work didn’t translate into M&A mandates with those companies after markets recovered. They were both impacted by the same trend in energy - there just aren’t enough deals for the number of banks, and once you factor in “feeding the lenders” there is very little left for the boutiques.
At Evercore, Finnie retired which really hurt the upstream practice and his heirs haven’t gotten much done. Pacha and Strong are still good but there hasn’t been much on the midstream side. OFS is now energy transition, which isn’t a real vertical even if banks want to pretend that it is.
Moelis never really had a strong M&A practice in Houston. It’s always been an elite RX shop that has to scrape and grind during M&A season. I don’t think they closed a deal last year.
When oil inevitably crashes again they will both bring in insane fees and give the MDs 3 years of extra leash.
Debatable on the RX cycle… Companies don’t just restructure every couple years, and I think leverage levels are generally lower as companies already restructured themselves to be fine at lower commodity prices in the last crash. Think it’ll be a while til we see another RX wave even when oil goes down.
Are you like 24 or something? There were definitely companies that restructured in 2016 and 2020 - plenty of shitcos in oil and gas that will always RX during a downturn
gas E&P companies for sure if Nat gas stays below $2 for another year or 18 months
Bump. Curious to hear about GS JPM EVR BofA C JEF RBC TPH etc
GS - Whale hunters. Good chance of being on whatever mega deal of the year. Have never heard a single positive thing about the culture.
JPM - Great shop, largest lender in the space, extremely toxic and routinely screws over interns. Avoid like the plague, especially entering uncertain economic times. Not worth the risk of snuffing out your finance career before it begins by getting no-offered.
EVR - See above. Still good, but their strongest vertical (midstream) has been slow.
Citi - Elite as recently as last year, arguably were the best all-around bank in Houston. Trauber retired, Laghari left, and CEO Rachel Maddow is overtly hostile to O&G and is pulling back from lending in the space. Still have some good people (e.g. Jameison) but expect them to fall off hard.
Jefferies - Still very good. Probably top in upstream, which has been the most active vertical over the past couple of years. Ralph Eads might be the last remaining "living legend" in the space that still shows up to meetings (Trauber, Osmar, etc. all gone)
TPH - Still kicking, still good in upstream. Good shop and solid culture (for Houston).
RBC - Have always been a solid office but have improved over the past couple of years. Would be surprised if they weren't one of the top RBC offices.
BofA - Office kept alive by capital markets and lending like half+ of the bulges in Houston. Don't do much M&A. Very "meh" office but BofA is still a good brand name for the resume.
My title is outdated and I have been out of the banking game for a couple of years but I will give my perspective on the Houston banking scene, which has changed a lot in recent years. A few years back, the top groups (in no particular order) in my opinion were Barclays, CS, Citi, TPH, Evercore and Jefferies. Barclays has fallen off considerably with the retirements of Pipkin and Jacobe. CS has obviously fallen off as well for a myriad of reasons. Evercore hasn’t been as strong in recent years, particularly on the E&P side but maintains a strong midstream practice. Trauber’s retirement plus lack of support from the top are major issues at Citi. TPH solid but no longer what they once were. Maynard in particular still had his initials on a significant amount of fees. Their deal flow has changed but team size hasn’t changed a ton as they still have over 20 MDs and ~10 EDs. Jefferies obviously continues to do well.
Based on more recent deal flow, it seems the most active groups today are (again, in no particular order) JPM, Jefferies and RBC, followed by Goldman elephant hunting large corporate deals. JPM has gotten on a ton of big corporate M&A in recent years (cultural issues notwithstanding), Jefferies is chugging along and RBC has been able to leverage the Richardson Barr side into more corporate M&A, in addition to bread and butter A&D, while also picking up a few MDs opportunistically from other banks. Their deals are listed on the Richardson Barr website so can compare to other banks that list transactions (TPH, Piper, Evercore, Moelis, etc.).
MS, BofA, Barclays, Evercore, TPH, Citi, etc. in next group. Lazard and Moelis mainly pick up RX work when that wave comes. Moelis chases a lot of low probability work, particularly in OFS. Piper is smaller deal size / higher volume but generally seems to be best option for generalist / non-energy exits (Center Oak, Platte River, etc.). Were also impacted by retirements and continued difficult M&A environment for OFS. Houlihan has grabbed some RX and A&D work. UBS trying to do energy transition. Mizuho - who knows with recent JPM pickups. Raymond James not doing much. Scotia seems to have disappeared. Wells Fargo not doing much either. Don’t know enough about PJT to comment. TBD on how Guggenheim fares with recent hires but haven’t gained a ton of traction the last few years.