A gas flame burns behind oil field workers in the desert oil fields of Sakhir, Bahrain.Hasan Jamali/The Associated Press
Cancen Oil Canada Inc. is shaking up its management team by bringing in an investment banker and a crew of waste-management experts to improve the company's performance in 2013.
Brian Petersen, who currently serves as managing director and head of energy at Stonecap Securities Inc., will step into the chief executive role in the New Year. Mr. Petersen had only been with Stonecap since 2010, but has previous experience at RBC Capital Markets, Cormark Secrities and Versant Partners (which merged with Mr. Petersen's own boutique energy banking firm back in 2009).
Cancen is an energy services business that specializes in waste management services for upstream oil and natural gas companies that operate in Western Canada. That makes it a good fit for Mr. Petersen, who has also been responsible for Stonecap's investment banking team in Western Canada. Cancen is also a Stonecap client.
Behind him will be a new president, COO and senior vice-president of sales and business development – all of whom most recently worked in waste processing at energy services company Tervita Corp. (formerly CCS Corp.). Cancen also replaced its CFO with another energy industry veteran in November.
Leading up to the management change, Stonecap has been at the front of an effort to raise capital for Cancen through a brokered private placement offering for $5-million of four-year bonds paying 10 per cent interest.
Current Cancen CEO, Fred LaHaie, will retire after he leaves the post on Dec. 31. The company's stock, which hit a $2.40 peak in early Dec. 2011, has been depressed most of 2012 and is now hovering around the 40 cent mark.
Also, the company won't be known as Cancen for much longer. A recent press release indicates the new management will seek a symbolic change of the company's name at the next annual meeting.