Calgary investment bank Peters & Co. is spreading its wings, creating a dedicated team of property acquisition & divestiture experts to advise on the sale of oil and gas fields.
Employee-owned Peters & Co. is moving into a specialty that plays to a consolidating industry; witness Suncor's rapid disposition of natural gas properties in the wake of the Petro Canada takeover. While not as high profile as M&A work, there is a steady and lucrative stream of advisory work coming from energy companies that are constantly revisiting their holdings.
Acquisitions and divestitures, known in the oil patch as "A&D," is a sector that's seen a swirl of professional movement, with leading players such as Waterous & Co. being acquired (Bank of Nova Scotia snapped it up) and FirstEnergy Capital moving into the field last year.
Peters & Co. hired Brian Tuffs from EnCana to lead its A&D team. A veteran of two decades in the North American energy business, Mr. Tuffs has experience in buying and selling conventional and unconventional oil and gas reserves. The investment bank deepened the new team by also luring Jamshed Khory from EnCana - the engineering graduate has six years of experience in the industry.
The new A&D group joins a Peters & Co. investment banking team that focuses on raising money for energy companies, and advising on mergers and acquisitions of entire companies. Last year, the brokerage house worked on 32 energy deals.