An oil pump jack pumps oil in a field near Calgary.TODD KOROL/Reuters
Energy banking veteran David McGorman has joined Calgary-based Black Spruce Merchant Capital ahead of an expected uptick in oil-patch deals.
Mr. McGorman, who was chief executive officer of Jennings Capital when that firm was acquired by Mackie Research Financial Corp. in 2014, started this week as managing director of investment banking for Black Spruce, a small shop that concentrates on the junior exploration, production and oil-field services sector.
At Mackie, he was vice-chairman and head of energy investment banking.
Black Spruce CEO Sonny Mottahed said Mr. McGorman's experience is expected to benefit the deal-advisory firm as stubbornly low oil and gas prices yield more asset sales and takeovers.
"The fuse is getting shorter and shorter," Mr Mottahed said. "Everybody kind of sits back and hopes for commodity price recovery. Conventional [exploration and production] companies do get immediate benefits from increases in the commodities, but at the same time there's immediate pain when the commodities turn the other way and we've seen more of the latter than the former.
"So there are certainly going to be more transactions to be done."
Before joining Jennings, a boutique that had struggled amid a downturn in business before it was sold, Mr. McGorman worked at Chase Manhattan Corp., Raymond James Financial Inc. and Haywood Securities Inc.
Jeffrey Jones