There’s a feeling in the air blowing off the North Sea, and it’s not a lot like Christmas.
But it does have a slight whiff of opportunity to Jon Fitzpatrick. About six months ago, the North Sea deals veteran became the head of oil & gas EMEA for Macquarie Capital, a division of the Australian banking and infrastructure giant.
The bank, which started as an Australian outpost of UK stockbroker Hill Samuel back in 1969, is now an international concern specialising in energy, industrials, infrastructure and has £215billion of assets under management.
Recently Macquarie splashed out its share of £1billion to acquire Aberdeen Airport, as well as those in Glasgow and Southampton.
Not that this is Mr Fitzpatrick’s concern, although he is a regular flier to the Granite city from the bank’s base in London.
Instead, we wants to break the Australian bank into the city’s tight knit advisory community and widen the options for companies that are ambitious for growth – or desperate for investment.
Meeting the Press and Journal at a city hotel, he leans back and says:
“Volatility always provides fantastic opportunities, and that doesn’t matter if that’s related to oil price or asset prices.
“If you are well capitalised and well advised, there’s a lot of opportunity in markets in markets where your peers are stressed.
“If you think about it, go back 20 years ago. There were 30 to 40 key players in the UKCS. Now there are more than 150.
“Most of the NOCs and IOCs have been replaced by smaller independents who tend to be less well capitalised.
“They are long project, short cash.”
But the merger and acquisitions market – let along any firm daring to list on the stock markets – has ground to halt as markets and the sector in general “pauses for breath” in a year promising significant change.
The last IPO Mr Fitzpatrick worked on was the Portsmouth and Aberdeen based wellhead technology company, Plexus, nearly ten years ago.
But despite sharply falling oil prices and the domination of private equity in the sector, he thinks there is scope to investigate the capital markets once again.
“If you only offer your clients a menu that has two options – sell your business to trade or have private equity invest in it – those are the only options on the table,” he observes.
“If you are giving your clients proper advice, you should be agnostic about what is best for that company and their capital needs.”
He adds that maybe the issue is a lack of equity markets experience in Aberdeen.
“There’s no shortage of exciting well managed, well run profitable companies here, some of whom would be very attractive to the capital markets.
“Anyone who says the IPO market is shut is speaking nonsense.
“It may have closed to certain advisers and certain companies, but good well managed businesses can go almost regardless of market conditions. They will always get an audience.”
Q&A
Who helped you get where you are today?
Over the years, I’ve benefitted from the good counsel of a number of generous individuals but my parents inspired me most. I watched my father build his IT business through the 1980s and 90s. It made me appreciate what it means to be independent and why it’s important to be responsible for your own destiny.
I’ve been fortunate, I’ve worked hard and my wife and family are hugely supportive.
What do you still hope to achieve in business?
I enjoy problem solving. It’s my core motivation and what gets me up early and keeps me awake late. I want Macquarie’s reputation in the Oil & Gas sector to be synonymous with originating and successfully executing entrepreneurial and innovative transactions.
If you were in power in government, what would you change?
For some time, and increasingly so, there has been great reluctance on the part of politicians to accept the onus of responsibility for failure. Rarely does anyone admit they got it wrong and very little would appear to be grounds for resignation.
What are you reading, listening or glued to on TV?
Anything affording simple escapism. I’m still recovering from the sensory overload of the Scottish Referendum debate.
If you were a character in fiction or in history, who would you be?
Take your pick: Captain Jack Sparrow, Indiana Jones, Zorro or Robin Hood. It would be good to be swashbuckling, windswept and interesting….
What do you drive and dream of driving?
BMW X5M.
Bugatti Veyron. Any of the original Jaguar XKs.
What would your children or partner say about you?
They like to tell it how it is, so I really do shudder to think – you really would need to ask them!
Which charity do you support and why?
A variety of different ones each year, with a bias towards supporting friends and family in event-driven fundraising activities.