43 Comments
 

Citi is without a doubt the dominant force. Barclays as well, but they are not as hot as they used to be.

GS, EVR, and Jefferies are also very strong, as someone has already posted.

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I am not sure about the BB groups. Have seen the names of Barclays, Citi and GS in pretty much all the lists over the last five years. So, you can expect them to have solid groups.

Then there are boutiques like Simmons & Co (Piper Jaffray's energy IB division) and Tudor Pickering Holt, that have almost exclusive focus on energy and O&G.

And yes - most O&G groups are in Texas. Even in Texas, I have seen that the influential MM PE and IB shops are in Houston. Dallas comes second.

RBC has a good presence in Canada; so, based entirely on my speculation, they might have strong dealflow here as well. Not sure about other shops.

 

Depends on what you are talking about. If you are talking about IB then all of the banks listed above ^. If you are talking about other aspects like trading, etc. then Macquarie needs to be in the discussion.

 

Fair enough, CIBC seems to get a fair share of Tier II-III deals (not to say that Scotia is getting "Tier I"; though they have been engaged on a few meaningful International divestiture mandates for the Majors but unclear if those processes are being led from the Houston office). Regardless, broadly speaking, tough A&D market right now for sure. Jefferies still commanding a lead in market share as they've been on most of the big deals, most recently: Felix (TPH on buyside), Devon's Barnett, Equinor's Eagle Ford, Highpeak (lol).

 

Disagree. I'd say Scotia is more of a poor man's Jefferies (albeit with a broader geographic scope). But what TPH and RBC (lack relative to Scotia) in A&D they more than make up for it in big corporate M&A.

 

M&A = big corporate transactions (Oxy/Anadarko, RSP/Concho, any of the big midstream simplifications, C&J/Keane, Aramco/SABIC) - usually bigger in deal value and much harder to get on the advisory team if you're a boutique (since you can't help finance any of it)

A&D = asset/acreage transactions that are exclusively upstream (Spur/Concho, BP/Petrohawk) - usually smaller in value and higher in volume. Emphasis placed more on "technical expertise/execution" from the banks technical/engineering team (Ralph Eads and Jefferies have traditionally been the kings here although EVR and TPH do very well for themselves; Scotia does fairly well here too - albeit to a lesser extent - with the added bonus of lots of Latam/international exposure).

 

BAML has a solid team in this space. Just recently was lead adviser to Oxy on the Oxy/APC merger and has poached some of the big O&G MDs (Hutchinson, Schretter) over the last couple of years

 

Just my thoughts:

Citi, EVR, JEF are all very strong

GS,CS,BarCap are also strong, but not quite the insane deal volume those other guys get

TPH and Simmons have strong connections but have seen some dip over the last downturn

Wf/UBS/RBC are relatively strong and have seen somewhat decent dealflow. WF is particular strong in midstream and OFS and RBC in A&D. UBS unfortunately might be the weakest of these 3

Intrepid - likely going to be a very strong place to buy during the next downturn and have seen incredibly analyst placements

Moelis - I believe the are overhyped on this page for Houston personally, but must admit I do not know a huge deal about them so I will leave the verdict to the more knowledgeable

Hope this gives you a decent lay of the land. I can comment on specific banks if need, just let me know which one you’re curious about and I will reply if I am familiar.

 

Moelis Houston is kinda complicated. I think the deals they do are on the more complicated end of the spectrum, so naturally they’re a little harder to close (mostly restructurings, cross-border deals, heck even their most recent capital market engagement barely went through). From an analyst/associate perspective though it’s pretty solid, they top houston in comp (along with evercore, tph, Jef but you’re have to consider they’re less of a sweatshop too compared to these places) and their and their PE placement is pretty solid (have heard great things about this next class’ placement from a friend there). Have also heard good things about their culture.

So, yes, the amount of “closed” deal flow is less than many, many of the other places in Houston (if that’s what you’re looking for you won’t get it — but they’re well hedged for whatever commodity environment is in play with a solid restructuring practice which is why I think this site tends to hype them up.

 
Controversial

Surprised there’s so much discussion on the bulges and not the eb’s. Citi and Barclays have always performed well, mainly because they work across multiple verticals. Other bulges haven’t performed as hot; JPM has continued to build out its midstream group, but there’s only so much you can do when there’s that much competition in the vertical. Everyone knows CS has been in a slump, and it’s apparent already in this discussion. GS really only does OFS, so you already know they’re in for a rough time (see Q reports)

Evercore has always been at the top of the pack, for both M&A and RX. I wouldn’t consider them the best E&P player, but they’re T3 for sure. Jefferies also a brand name firm in the space, but A&D flow has been pretty dry all of 2019. Simmons has had job cuts at the VP and As level; TPH would’ve too, but anyone familiar with the group knows the seniors would rather take paycuts than lay people off.

Outside of Oxy, there hasn’t been many great M&A deals. Even when they occured this year, it’s typically the EB’s that’s the main advisor (See Recent WPX/Felix). AramCo IPO left the bankers with less than desired fees, and some banks probably expended more than they gained. Surprised more banks didn’t drop off like EVR did since it was so drawn out. Looking on the other side, the RX vultures are eating good. EVR has won some debtor side mandates, but they’re facing increased competition from LAZ and Moelis. A name that’s not even mentioned in the thread is PJT; the RSSG group has been behind the scenes constantly in the O&G world, especially looking at the big restructuring mandates. They recently opened a Houston office, and it’s definitely not for M&A/A&D. HL has been the legacy creditor advisor, and they’ve also been on most of the RX mandates. Let’s not forget to mention JP has connections with all the legacy managers, so the NY/HOU/LA FRG groups there are going to have some disastrous hours. TPH has been stealing the show on debtor side mandates, which isn’t surprising given the group’s heritage.

If you’re a college student, I would tread carefully with O&G in Houston. Compared to NY/SF, you’re going to have a rough time - might not even have job security just looking at the current environment. Another thing to note is that there’s an increasing number of energy buyside opportunities out of undergrad, but it’s currently only for T3 targets. Some HH would rather email a kid at H/W/S with a summer gig than even an analyst at Citi. Might as well train them in-house, right?

 

lmfao where do I start...

  1. If you’re going to Citi, Barclays, CS, or even GS for that matter, you’ll be fine. You’re not going to be out of a job, especially out of undergrad.

  2. Rumors about job cuts were only rumors. There were talks about TPH firing analysts, but I confirmed that this never happened. Sure the other boutiques are doing just fine.

  3. Deal flow has always been variable for O&G. There’s obviously not going to be as much work as when crude was priced higher. It’s a cyclical industry, so the industry just favors the distressed/rx cycle right now.

  4. PJT moved down to Houston for everything - they ran an O&G group out of NY and thought it was about time to move to the big H. Not surprising, but the bulk of restructuring is done out of NY still.

  5. HL FRG values culture and work/life. No ones going to get “crushed,” but you can expect a lot of deal flow. If you know anything about the firm or space, you would know the group head cares about the analysts and associates.

  6. Banks didn’t get what they wanted/expected from the IPO, but it’s not bad either. No one got screwed really - just unfortunate for lengthy time on the deal and the small %.

  7. Only 2 groups off the top of my head hire out of undergrad for O&G. One group only looks at H/W, the other doesn’t care. Your point makes no sense since these buyside firms would rather hire someone from industry at a major as opposed to a 22 year old. There’s no overall industry shift lmfao

Stop exaggerating firms like EVR and TPH and making other boutiques sound like terrible places to work. Sure, they’re great places, but there are so many places. If you like OFS, go to GS or TPH then. If you like RX, there’s a handful of firms to work for. If you want A&D, goto Jefferies. Anyone exiting undergrad should find a firm with people they enjoy being around and a place they can just learn.

 

Ok so if you’re an analyst and for the most part an associate, your job is always going to be safe. It’s when you’re VP-level + where you have to worry about job security.

I agree with your point that some of the BB in Houston are better than others. I have no clue what BAML, UBS, CS, JPM, and MS are even doing right now. And I agree that EVR, TPH, JEF are crushing it but I also think these three groups are by far the most bloated. In fact, I think if any bank in Houston sees cuts it’d be one of these three places (TPH has 20 analysts, there’s NO reason they should have this much in this sort of cycle in my opinion).

 

CS, JPM and MS had fairly quiet years but BAML had a ton of large M&A deals, more so than most of the banks like C, GS, BARC, TPH, Simmons which people here keep pumping up. EVR still crushed it though.

Just looking at Mergermarket: OXY/APC (lead) and asset sale to Total, Energy Transfer/SEMGroup (sole), Comstock / Covey Park (sole), IFM / Buckeye (mostly financing), Noble midstream deal, CVR sellside, Citizen / Roan and a bunch of Petrobras sellsides.

 

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