Energy Investment Specialist Simmons Reports Busy Year

International investment bank Simmons has announced a busy year in 2012, involving 14 major transactions adding up to €1.72 billion ($2.3bn).

The specialist energy investor said this represented more than double the total value of deals it completed in 2011. The Aberdeen office led UK and international deals, which represent a significant share of the 48 M&A transactions completed by Simmons & Company International Group.

The corporate finance advisers reported a significant role in many of the most prominent transactions across the oil and gas service sector last year including deals subsea, well services, drilling and completions sectors.

Colin Welsh, chief executive officer at Simmons, said: "Getting the best result for our clients in the current environment has been challenging because the market dynamics keep changing as new buyers emerge and the sector becomes more geographically diverse. It helps that we focus exclusively on energy because our market intelligence is always current."

In the subsea sector, the sale of Acteon to KKR and the divestment of GustoMSC by SBM to Parcom Capital were prominent deals. Significant transactions in technology included the sales of Zenith, Red Spider Technology, Petrowell and Nessco to Lufkin, Halliburton, Weatherford and Rignet Inc. respectively.

On the buy side, Simmons represented Tetra Technologies Inc in its acquisition of Aberdeen-based rig cooling specialists Optima and assisted Pheonix Equity Partners in their acquisition of Gall Thomson Environmental in the flow control sector.