Evercore Bankers Are ‘Running Very, Very Hard’ in the Fight for Anadarko
Evercore Says Its Energy Bankers Are ‘Running Very, Very Hard’
(Bloomberg) -- Evercore Inc., the investment bank at the center of a takeover fight for Anadarko Petroleum Corp., sees a continued run in energy dealmaking.
"Our energy people are very busy right now," said John Weinberg, Evercore’s executive chairman, in a conference call with analysts Wednesday. "They are running very, very hard."
The New York-based bank is advising Anadarko on its $33 billion agreement this month to sell to Chevron Corp. Occidental Petroleum Corp. disclosed a rival offer for Anadarko on Wednesday worth $38 billion.
The deal stands out in an otherwise sleepy market for U.S. energy mergers and acquisitions. Dealmaking in the sector has been largely muted this year, following a crash in oil prices in December. The volatility scuttled transactions including QEP Resources Inc.’s plan to unload operations in the Midwest for $1.7 billion.
Weinberg’s comments are more optimistic than the tone across the rest of Wall Street, which is bracing for a slowdown across the board of large-scale mergers.
While transaction volumes "obviously" haven’t been high, Weinberg said, he pointed to more on the horizon.
"We seem to be in a lot of different situations right now," Weinberg said. "I couldn’t say that in terms of the activity level that there’s any group that’s really quiet right now for us."
Read more about Evercore’s role, here.
To contact the reporters on this story: Sonali Basak in New York at sbasak7@bloomberg.net;Kiel Porter in Chicago at kporter17@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, ;Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Matthew Monks, Amy Thomson
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