Credit Suisse Group AG is closing its office in Houston as part of the bank’s emergency takeover by UBS Group AG, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
The move spurs questions on whether the Swiss bank will maintain an active role in energy dealmaking at a time when other firms are bulking up for the oil and gas banking business.
UBS also is closing its Houston investment banking office, which mostly covers clean-energy technologies including hydrogen, people with knowledge of the matter said. The sector will be covered out of other locations such as New York, said the people. Fate of the handful of managing directors at UBS’s Houston office was unclear.
Bankers at Credit Suisse had shepherded several high-profile transactions, including taking Parsely Energy public and years later advising the oil driller in its acquisition by Pioneer Natural Resources, led by shale titan Scott Sheffield, for roughly $7.6 billion.
Credit Suisse also brought Midland, Texas-based Diamondback Energy to the market, and the driller is now the largest Fortune 500 company headquartered in the Permian Basin, North America’s most productive oil field.
The Swiss bank was hyper active during the shale revolution of the 2010s when many explorers, who were chasing production at all costs, recapitalized with equity offerings to avoid going broke. The bank led on billions of new equity.
Representatives at Credit Suisse and UBS declined to comment.
A number of Credit Suisse bankers have jumped ship since the bank’s forced merger with UBS was announced in March.
UBS had planned to cut more than half of Credit Suisse’s 45,000 workforce beginning in July, with the trading and investment banking unit being hit the hardest, Bloomberg News reported.
Author: Rachel Butt, Mitchell Ferman, Crystal Tse and Kiel Porter
