Oilfield Services: IPO Indeed!

The energy business consultants Douglas-Westwood Limited, said it has provided advisory services to $10 billion of energy related transactions during 2007. Director of Transaction Services, Andrew Reid, commented, "2007 has proven to be highly active as far as energy related M&A activity is concerned. Although our work is predominately global, the UK market is still highly influential in the raising of private equity and debt and we expect to see this continue at least for the first half of 2008."

The $10 billion portfolio of deals has spanned private equity, banking groups and public markets. "During the year we advised on the IPO of Eurasia Drilling Company and Integra – both Russian oil industry businesses. The listing of the subsea business, Wellstream, was also a key deal for us on the public markets," commented Reid.

While public markets become less active, private equity continues to pick up. "There have been a significant number of oil service businesses within Europe having been purchased by private equity firms over the past year. We still believe there is an over-supply of private equity capital in the market and as other industry sectors lose direction we expect to see additional emphasis being placed on energy related investments.

John Westwood, Managing Director of Douglas-Westwood, commented, "We are adding to our service lines to accommodate this expected change in the market, by establishing a separate Advisory practice to progress strategic consulting for corporate customers. We have increased our team numbers over the past quarter and we are appointing a director to head the service line in the UK and international markets. We expect corporate activity to remain buoyant during 2008, although we have recognised and instigated a proactive strategy to align our business with new market participants and shifting geographic focus."