Petrie Partners

Oct 11, 2023

October 11, 2023 at 09:39 am EDT Share NEW YORK, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Petrie Partners, a boutiqueadvisory firm known to few outside the energy industry, advisedon Pioneer Natural Resources Co's $60 billion sale toExxon Mobil, this year's biggest deal, alongside majorinvestment banks. Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup Inc, whichtook the lead in advising Pioneer and Exxon, respectively, areexpected to garner the biggest share of the fees from thetransaction. Centerview Partners also advised Exxon, while Morgan Stanleyand Bank of America secured advisory roles with Pioneer. A transaction of this size typically results in tens ofmillions of dollars worth of fees for advisory firms. Forinstance, earlier this year Centerview was paid about $88million in fees for advising Seagen Inc on its $43billion sale to Pfizer Inc, while buyside advisorGuggenheim Securities received roughly $49 million, according todata compiled by LSEG. Megadeals such as the Pioneer transaction have been few andfar between, due to increased regulatory scrutiny, high interestrates and market volatility that have dented the confidence ofmany corporate dealmakers. Mergers and acquisitions have been sluggish this yearglobally. For the first nine months of 2023, M&A volumes stoodat $2.1 trillion, the lowest level for the period in a decade,according to data from Dealogic. Denver-based Petrie, which is focused on advising on M&A inthe shale industry, traces its roots back to Petrie Parkman &Co, an energy-focused boutique bank founded in 1989 that wasacquired by Merrill Lynch in 2006. The firm was carved out fromBank of America in 2011. The chairman of the firm, Tom Petrie, was a co-founder ofPetrie Parkman and served a vice chairman at Bank of Americabefore the current Petrie was created. Tom Petrie has advised onmore than $250 billion of energy-related deals during hiscareer, as well as oil and gas initiatives for Saudi Arabia, thestate of Alaska and the U.S. Department of Energy. Petrie's website lists just eight bankers, split evenlybetween Denver and an office in Houston. Three of those - AndrewRapp and Mike Bock in Denver, as well as Jon Hughes in Houston -have been with the firm since its days as Petrie Parkman. (Reporting by Anirban Sen and David French in New YorkEditing by Nick Zieminski) Share