Houston Exit Ops

Current analyst in Houston. Would say things for the last couple classes have been odd due to COVID/recruiting timelines, but have historically fallen into a few buckets:

• Mega-Fund Energy Groups - Primarily NY/HOU (KKR, Apollo, BX, TPG, etc.)
• Large-Cap Energy PE - Primarily HOU/DFW (Quantum, NGP, EnCap, First Reserve, etc.)
• Mid-Cap Energy PE - Primarily TX (Lime Rock, Carnelian, etc.)
• Infrastructure Funds - Primarily NY (GIP, Brookfield, others for pure-play infra) (Arclight, Energy Capital Partners, Riverstone for Energy focused funds branding as infrastructure)
• Texas Generalist PE - Houston, DFW, Austin (Quite a few funds of various sizes that pick off Houston analysts trying to get out of O&G)
• Lateral / A2A to NY/SF IBD Teams (Seen more frequently in the COVID era and with Energy funds recruiting less the last year)

Above is what I had seen as the “normal” exit ops from Houston, with a hand full of people making the jump to MF outside of Energy in NY/SF, others doing random startups, and others into hedge funds (but not super familiar). Would generally say staying in Energy/Infra is the natural path, and moving outside of that sector typically requires more work / trade off. Again, this being reflective of a pre-COVID “norm”. Since COVID began, I have seen a lot of lateral movement to teams outside of Energy as the main non-energy exit as other groups have picked up deal flow. As things have improved for the energy funds recently, hiring will/has likely picked up some to provide opportunities there. Additionally, the post-COVID renewables/cleantech focus and SPAC wave has provided some running room for traditional energy investors to move into the space. Still to be seen if there will be sizable junior demand for that skill set and if they recruit from Houston vs. vs. NY renewables vs. SF/tech teams. 
 

This is just from my point of view so happy to hear other perspectives as I know things have been in flux the last 12 months and my views maybe out dated.