Martin Molyneaux, vice-chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, is calling it a day after 26 years in the business.
One of Canada's most esteemed oil and gas research and investment banking professionals, and easily one of its tallest, has decided to leave the business after 26 years to begin what he is calling a personal reinvention.
Martin Molyneaux, vice-chairman of FirstEnergy Capital Corp., has yet to sketch out a new career plan and has asked friends and colleagues to send him ideas of what to do next.
"Being referred to fairly regularly as kind of the elder statesman of energy research in this country was starting to annoy me," he said. "I'll be 52 in March. I've still got lots to offer, but with the investment banking thing, 26 years is probably enough."
Mr. Molyneaux, who stands 6-foot, 7-inches tall, joined FirstEnergy as an oil and gas analyst about a year after Murray Edwards, Jim Davidson and Rick Grafton founded the energy-focused dealer in 1993. Prior to that he worked at BBN James Capel and Nesbitt Thomson & Co.
In 2010, he was awarded SuperLeague Analyst status by Brendan Wood International, a recognition given to past recipients of their TopGun Analyst award based on feedback from corporate issuers and investors.
"His reputation has been an invaluable prospecting tool for us over the years as his name resonates in more countries than I can list," Mr. Davidson, FirstEnergy's CEO, said in a letter to staff.
Mr. Molyneaux's departure will leave a void in the industry, said Peter Tertzakian, chief energy economist and managing director at ARC Financial Corp.
Mr. Tertzakian described the analyst as a deep thinker who is known for not speaking too early or jumping to conclusions, a rare quality in the finance game. He is "uncharacteristically mild-mannered in the shark tank of investment banking. Much as his physical stature, he towered in the business."
Mr. Molyneaux is the third senior energy banking veteran announce retirement this this year, following RBC Dominion Securities Inc. vice-chairman Bill Sembo and Peters & Co. Ltd. chairman Mike Tims.
It was a tough year in the industry, with financing, trading and merger and acquisition revenue down across the board. However, that was not a deciding factor to make a change, Mr. Molyneaux said.
"In the investment banking world, whether it's research, sales and trading or corporate finance, you need to be more than 100 per cent engaged every day," he said. That was getting tougher.
Looking back, he said his best prediction as an analyst was for a run-up in natural gas prices beginning in the late 1990s, after poring over mountains of gas-well data that revealed production levels following initial output were dropping off much quicker than previously understood.
"We just created these annual decline curves and we made a big call on gas. Gas went from a buck and change to $4 (per thousand cubic feet) within the next 18 months. That was probably the biggest call on the whole sector," he said.
Natural gas prices rose steadily for about a decade after until the shale gas revolution took hold, flooding the market was cheaper supplies, a situation that continues to pressure markets across the continent.
Mr. Molyneaux will remain at FirstEnergy until March.
Jeffrey Jones