Macquarie replaces Bank of America as Bowleven’s nomad
BRITISH oil and gas company Bowleven has hired Macquarie Capital as its new nominated adviser (nomad) on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim), following the resignation of Bank of America last week, the company announced yesterday.
The Edinburgh-based firm said in a statement that it had appointed Macquarie with immediate effect to act both as its nomad on Aim and also as its joint broker.
A Bowleven spokesperson told City A.M.: “Macquarie has a fantastic oil and gas practice, and it’s very strong in resources. It was well known to the company for those reasons, so it was quite a clear choice. Macquarie are also nomad to quite a few firms on Aim – as some banks are deciding to leave the market, others are obviously sticking with it.”
The Australian financial services conglomerate will team up with Bowleven’s existing joint corporate brokers, Barclays and Bank of America.
Bank of America last week resigned as energy firm’s nomad after it completely withdraw its status as nominated adviser on Aim.
The US bank’s departure leaves only three remaining large “bulge bracket” banks advising Aim-listed companies.
A number of the big investment banks became Aim nomads during the commodities supercycle, but have since started exiting the market as institutional investors have switched their focus to larger firms.
Bank of America’s withdrawal followed in the footsteps of UBS, which dumped its nomad role two years ago, Deutsche Bank, which withdrew last year, and Morgan Stanley, which has re-focused its activities on FTSE 100-listed companies.
Bowleven is an independent exploration and development company focused on Africa. The group currently has interests in Cameroon and Kenya. It is headed up by non-executive chairman Ronnie Hanna and chief executive officer Kevin Hart.