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Downtown Houston is home base for PNC's new energy office.
PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Pittsburgh?s largest bank, has opened a corporate banking office serving the oil and gas industry in Houston. It is PNC?s (NYSE:PNC) only exclusive energy office, focused on reserve-based lending and pipelines, and will serve clients nationwide.
The unit is led by Managing Director Tom Byargeon, hired from Credit Agricole where he served as the U.S. head of the independent oil and natural gas producers group. The new office is located at 1200 Smith St., Suite 1600, in Houston.
Why Houston? PNC?s retail footprint doesn?t extend into Texas ? yet ? and it largely phased out the builder finance unit that was part of its 2012 purchase of RBC Bank USA, which once had a large Houston presence of more than 200 employees, because the business line didn?t fit with its strategy.
?Houston is the U.S. ? if not the global ? energy capital, with over 3,000 energy-related firms,? Amy Vargo, PNC vice president and senior manager, media relations, told me. ?Over 500 S&P firms and 100 pipeline companies are headquartered in Houston. Many of those companies now actively drilling in the Marcellus and Utica shale throughout southwest Pennsylvania are also headquartered in Houston. Having PNC bankers physically located in Houston will help us to be better aligned with the unique challenges and financing needs of this industry.?
Mauricio Viaud, a senior research analyst at Hefren-Tillotson Inc., said PNC?s decision to base the office in Houston makes sense.
"A lot of the big guys ? Schlumberger, Halliburton ?are based down there so I see the angle," Viaud said. He recently joined Hefren-Tillotson from BNY Mellon where he specialized energy and materials. "As far as getting access to management and financial teams, there would be a large number of them headquartered in Houston. They?ll probably get more bang for the buck there. But Pittsburgh is an up-and-coming area as well so I wonder, down the road, if it might be prudent to open an office here."
Patty Tascarella covers accounting, banking, finance, legal, marketing and advertising and foundations. Contact her at ptascarella@bizjournals.com or 412-208-3832. .
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