From The Houston Business Journal
Nearly three years after Houston-based energy investment banking firm Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. became part of New York-based financial services firm Perella Weinberg Partners, Dan Pickering is spinning off his own firm.
Pickering spun out all remaining energy asset management strategies of the combined firm and created Houston-based Pickering Energy Partners, according to a Sept. 9 press release. However, the new firm will maintain a relationship with his former firm.
PEP will remain in its current offices at 1111 Bagby St., suite 4920. Pickering is leading the new firm as chief investment officer with Walker Moody as president. The firm’s website lists nine other team members.
PEP will invest clients’ assets in energy-focused “public and private investment strategies designed to deliver strong risk-adjusted returns,” per the website and release. The firm aims to “continue capitalizing on opportunities in the energy sector that have arisen from the ongoing five-year cyclical correction.”
As part of the spinout, PEP raised about $20 million in equity capital. In addition to maintaining its current platform of energy funds and investment vehicles, the firm is “considering launching a new suite of real asset-focused strategies later this year,” the release states.
Meanwhile, Bobby Tudor and Maynard Holt remain chairman and CEO, respectively, of Tudor Pickering Holt. TPH’s remaining services include investment banking dedicated exclusively to the energy sector, research, and sales and trading, per TPH’s website. Tudor and Holt are part of PEP’s investor group, and Pickering will become a senior adviser to TPH, per the release.
“This spinout into an employee-owned firm will allow us to continue to develop energy investment strategies and related businesses that can take advantage of energy market opportunities for our clients,” Pickering said in the release. “My PEP partner Walker Moody and I have assembled a team over the past decade with a strong entrepreneurial mindset, which is critical for attacking opportunities during energy’s cyclical corrections, expansions and transitions.”
The backstory
Pickering has more than 30 years of experience as a petroleum engineer, industry analyst and portfolio manager. He founded the original Pickering Energy Partners in 2004 as an institutional energy research firm and then teamed up with Tudor and Holt in 2007 to form Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.
In late 2016, TPH combined with Perella Weinberg Partners, with the combined firm’s energy practice continuing to operate as Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. At the time, Pickering became president and chief investment officer of the energy asset management business and joined the leadership of the combined asset management business. The deal added nearly $2 billion of assets under management to Perella Weinberg Partners’ asset management business and was expected to accelerate growth through the combination of TPH’s energy investment offerings and Perella Weinberg Partners’ asset management business, according to a November 2016 release.
