Oil & Gas M&a

SW is definitely well-respected in the oil and gas industry. I'm not sure how much they focus on M&A, but if O&G is what you're interested in then it's a good place to be.

They get on a decent number of deals (oxy/sinopec comes to mind)....not sure I'd take them over Simmons or TPH but still a good shop for O&G.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think their Houston office is strictly oil & gas, and they are indeed a good shop. I would have put them on par with TPH but they have been doing so well recently that now I'm not so sure. Still, a good shop.

Yea that s true, they were in quite a good on the league tables in 2010 and they also started the year with a bang with 2 really big deals, or what I assume are big deals (never worked in energy before). Any idea about their london arm, or does all the serious work gets handled in the US / Canada ?? Monty, I know you are big on energy, if I have an interview with such a firm is there anything specific that I should focus on beside the normal ?? Also anyone else who has pointers , would be great !!

Thanks Monty, appreciate it ....... Beef , Cart help a junior monkey in need please :)

Also, on more important question, I do not really grasp yet, why is oil stocks considered a defensive stock / investment .......any explanation ?

Waterous is a solid, well respected firm. It's E&P focused, and most of the work is A&D analysis of properties (i.e. a firm selling its GOM reserves) vs. a large corporate transaction (i.e. XOM acquiring XTO).

Because people always need oil. Same reason PnG is considered by some to be a defensive stock as you will always need the basic essentials that they provide.

I'd also note that Waterous (alongside Barclays) advised BHP on its $4.75 billion bid to acquire Chesapeake's Fayetteville assets. Pretty impressive mandate.

how you got that piece of information, is that on bloomberg, their website ??

I would be happy to help but unfortunately this is one bank I don't have any friends at, and don't know much about, other than the fact that they recruit at Rice every year.

I'm always happy to help but in this case I'd have to talk out of my ass and give unreliable opinions, which goes against my policy :-)

Cart - It was in the WSJ yesterday. As an FYI, Bank of Nova Scotia's retail bank is referred to as Scotiabank, its corporate and investment bank (including cap markets) is Scotia Capital, and its E&P M&A shop is Scotia Waterous.

Thanks a lot guys for all the help, i also been using the search function to see posts by all of you regarding valuation techniques and stuff......have some themes in mind to atlk about.....Tommorow is judgement day , so fingers crossed......I hope they take the fact into consideration that I have not worked in Energy before and do not rape me.....I am trying to calm down but I AM NERVOUS AS FUCK !!!

in my experience they definitely will not ask you energy specific questions unless you have worked in the space. They might ask you what you think about oil/gas prices, the future, etc. But they aren't going to ask you what Petrohawk should do with shale acreage or something. This was at the associate level, I would think even more true at the analyst level.

Scotia is well-nown in the mm in Houston, they are especially well-known for their research team thats full of petro engineers and o&g guys who know a bunch. Many other firms in Houston are following this to keep up. I beleive Goldman just started their own.

Sorry I have not been earlier, but some events kept me busy. Josh, what Cart said is right they do not ask a lot of industry specific question , I did not work in the industry before so maybe that is the reason. Mostly are fit questions and questions relating to previous positions you have in terms of how do you thinkk it will help coming into M&A and aaslo stuff relating to why do you choose this industry in particular (I think that was a huge part)

I think overall it went fine, i do not know if it went 100% perfect , but at the same time I would say it was over the 80% mark for me. Nonetheless, BEWARE OF THE MD, the MD is always the guys that will just put so much pressure on you to see you crack. In my case it was 45 minutes of constant bomardment about all sorts of questions regarding the industry and my experience. YOU DO NOT WANT THE MD TO SEE YOU CRACK, because if you crack in 30 - 45 minutes of convo he will know you will crack once he starts shouting in 15 hour days.........

Anyway they said they have to meet a couple more candidate and will come back to me within 2-3 weeks, I do not know if that means to fuck off or just that they are going to see more candidates.....Anyway I am going to keep my fingers crossed on this one because this is something i really want.... Good luck Josh

josh, I have not heard anything back yet, so anyway am keeping my fingers crossed, but i have a couple more interviews .......am sure if i keep knocking long and hard enough , something will eventually turn out positively. You should have the same approach, how did it go on your side ?