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RBC to acquire Richardson Barr & Co.
NEW YORK and HOUSTON, June 2, 2008 — RBC today
announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Richardson
Barr & Co., a leading Houston-based energy advisory firm
specializing in acquisitions and divestitures (A&D) in
the exploration and production (E&P) sector. Completion
of the transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals
and is expected to close by third fiscal quarter 2008. Terms
of the transaction were not disclosed.
A&D firms such as Richardson Barr specialize in assisting
public and private companies in the divestiture of their oil
and gas properties. The proposed transaction will give Richardson
Barr the ability to provide its private company clients a
complete range of financing and M&A support, as well as
ready access to RBC's strong public company relationships,
solid financial resources, and expanded product capabilities
in equity, high yield, loan syndications, private placement,
and convertibles.
"We are extremely excited about joining forces with
RBC Capital Markets," said Scott Richardson, co-founding
principal of Richardson Barr & Co. "This transaction
will allow us to provide a much broader range of services
to our clients, backed by the financial strength and stability
of RBC. Aligning ourselves with such a well-respected firm
also allows us to maintain our reputation for integrity, excellence
and quality execution."
The acquisition bolsters RBC's presence in the U.S. investment
banking market and provides added value to clients in the
E&P sector through the combination of RBC's capital markets
capabilities and public company relationships, and Richardson
Barr's private company relationships, advisory services, additional
specialized market intelligence and valuation capability,
robust transaction pipeline, and proprietary ideas and insights
in the A&D sector.
"Richardson Barr brings to RBC Capital Markets a strong
industry reputation, experienced engineers, geologists and
finance professionals, a dedicated focus on acquisitions and
divestitures in the exploration and production sector and
a terrific cultural fit," said Peter de Vos, RBC Capital
Markets' Head of Investment Banking. "Among other benefits,
this partnership also brings new M&A opportunities to
our public market clients by providing them with private company
asset transaction capabilities."
As part of its mandate, the new entity, to be known as RBC
Richardson Barr, will provide A&D support to RBC's North
American energy group in both the U.S. and Canada over time.
The transaction is the latest in a series of deals completed
by RBC as it continues to build its presence in the United
States and globally. RBC has announced 10 acquisitions in
the U.S. in the past two years, including recent acquisitions
by RBC Capital Markets of Daniels & Associates, the nation's
most active M&A advisor to the cable, telecom, broadcast
and Internet services industries; Carlin Financial Group,
a broker-dealer known for its proprietary trade execution
platform; and Seasongood & Mayer, the number one ranked
public finance firm in Ohio.
About Richardson Barr & Co.
Co-founded in 2003 by principals Scott Richardson and Steve
Barr, Houston-based Richardson Barr & Co. provides comprehensive
A&D services to the U.S. market. Its advisory services
include private oil and gas company sales, oil and gas asset
divestitures and fairness opinions/valuations. Richardson
Barr & Co. focuses on corporate and asset transactions
with private and private equity companies in the U.S.
About RBC Capital Markets
RBC Capital Markets is the corporate and investment banking
arm of RBC and is active globally in debt origination, sales
and trading, foreign exchange, infrastructure finance, structured
products, metals and mining, and energy. Its North American
platform includes a significant U.S. middle market investment
banking franchise and leading equity, underwriting, sales,
trading and research businesses. Bloomberg ranks the firm
as the 12th largest investment bank globally.
RBC Capital Markets' Global Energy
Group provides advice and raises capital for the energy
and utilities sectors around the world, including exploration
& production, oil field services, pipelines, master limited
partnerships (MLPs), and refining and marketing. The firm
provides award winning energy research that covers more than
200 energy companies around the world. RBC is one of the most
experienced banks in the world in oils sands financing and
is a Nomad on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).
About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) and its subsidiaries
operate under the master brand name of RBC. We are Canada's
largest bank as measured by assets and market capitalization,
and one of North America's leading diversified financial services
companies. We provide personal and commercial banking, wealth
management services, insurance, corporate and investment banking,
and transaction processing services on a global basis. We
employ approximately 70,000 full- and part-time employees
who serve more than 15 million personal, business, public
sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada,
the U.S. and 36 other countries. For more information, please
visit rbc.com.
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For more information, please contact:
U.S.
Kevin Foster,
RBC, 212-428-6902, kevin.foster@rbc.com
Loretta Healy,
The Hubbell Group 781-878-8882, lhealy@hubbellgroup.com
Canada
Beja Rodeck, RBC, 416-974-5506, beja.rodeck@rbc.com
Investor Relations
Marcia Moffat,
RBC, 416-955-7803, marcia.moffat@rbc.com
Amy Cairncross,
RBC, 416-955-7809, amy.cairncross@rbc.com
For general investor relations information please visit:
www.rbc.com/investorrelations.
CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements contained in this press release may be
deemed to be forward-looking statements under certain securities
laws, including the "safe harbor" provisions of
the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995 and in any applicable Canadian securities legislation.
These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited
to statements with respect to the acquisition of Richardson
Barr by RBC Capital Markets. Forward-looking statements are
typically identified by words such as "believe",
"expect", "forecast", "anticipate",
"intend", "estimate", "plan"
and "project" and similar expressions of future
or conditional verbs such as "will", "may",
"should", "could", or "would".
Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
By their very nature, forward-looking statements require
us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and
uncertainties, which give rise to the possibility that our
predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations and other
forward-looking information, including statements about the
acquisition of Richardson Barr & Co. by RBC Capital Markets
will not be achieved. We caution readers not to place undue
reliance on these statements as a number of important factors
could cause our actual results to differ materially from the
expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements.
These factors include, but are not limited to the possibility
that the proposed acquisition does not close when expected
or at all because required regulatory or other approvals are
not received or other conditions to the closing are not satisfied
on a timely basis or at all, that RBC Capital Markets and
Richardson Barr may be required to modify the terms and conditions
of the proposed transaction to achieve regulatory approval,
or that the anticipated benefits of the transaction are not
realized as a result of such things as the strength of the
economy and competitive factors in the areas where Richardson
Barr does business; the impact of changes in the laws and
regulations regulating financial services and enforcement
thereof (including banking, insurance and securities); judicial
judgments and legal proceedings; RBC Capital Markets ability
to complete the acquisition of Richardson Barr and to integrate
it with RBC Capital Market successfully; reputational risks,
and other factors that may affect future results of RBC and
Richardson Barr, including timely development and introduction
of new products and services, changes in tax laws, and technological
and regulatory changes. We caution that the foregoing list
of important factors is not exhaustive. Additional information
about these and other factors can be found in Royal Bank of
Canada's 2007 Annual Report.
Except as required by law, RBC Capital
Markets, Royal Bank of Canada and Richardson Barr assume no
obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained
in this press release.
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