OREANDA-NEWS. November 13, 2010. Renaissance Capital and Jeffrey Waterous announce the launch of Renaissance JMW Energy, a business which will provide cutting edge advisory services for oil and gas assets in emerging and frontier markets globally. The firm will be active across the up-stream, mid-stream and down-stream sectors of the international energy industry.

Renaissance JMW Energy will act as a strategic advisor on merger and acquisition (“M&A”) and acquisition and divestiture (“A&D”) transactions, and pro-actively identify opportunities for corporate restructuring activities in the international energy industry. It will advise private and state energy companies, national governments and a range of institutional and private investors, including sovereign wealth funds.

Renaissance JMW Energy combines the expertise of leading emerging markets investment bank Renaissance Capital and Jeffrey Waterous, a pioneer in the global energy industry. Waterous brings 30 years of experience, as the founder and former chairman of Waterous & Co, which was the leading oil and gas A&D advisory firm globally until Mr. Waterous sold it to Bank of Nova Scotia in 2005.

Renaissance JMW Energy will provide its clients with a number of distinctive strengths and advantages, including:

• a team of on-the-ground experts in the oil & gas sector in markets as diverse as Nigeria, India, Turkey, the Gulf and Morocco, as well as teams in London and Hong Kong, providing a coverage footprint which is unparalleled in the independent oil & gas advisory space;

• the ability to generate innovative ideas based on proprietary research;

• a singular commitment to emerging and frontier markets;

• the independence of a specialist oil & gas boutique, coupled with the ability to provide the sophisticated financing products and public-market advisory services which comes from its affiliation with a major investment bank such as Renaissance Capital.

Renaissance JMW will be based in Bahrain, with additional offices in Istanbul, Delhi and Casablanca. The opening of an office in Buenos Aires is targeted for early 2011. Renaissance JMW will also benefit from Renaissance Capital’s reach, including offices in London, New York, Moscow, Almaty and across sub-Saharan Africa.

The technical team, based in Istanbul, will be led by Dr. Arif Yukler, one of the world’s most prominent experts in quantitative hydrocarbon systems analysis, who will head a team of ten industry specialists. This team will be supplemented by a research team based in Delhi.

Stephen Jennings, Chief Executive Officer of Renaissance Capital, said:

“Renaissance JMW Energy is ideally positioned to become the premier advisory and investment firm in the global energy industry. We are particularly excited to be partnering with Jeff, an entrepreneur with unsurpassed knowledge of the industry, with extraordinary relationships, and a track record based on delivering results for clients. We believe our unique combination of skills will quickly make Renaissance JMW the firm of choice for companies, governments and investors in emerging markets looking to achieve high level results under challenging conditions.”

Jeffrey Waterous, Chairman of Renaissance JMW Energy, commented:

“I am absolutely thrilled to be teaming up with Renaissance Capital to build this new business. Renaissance’s entrepreneurial culture and unique platform in key emerging markets make it a perfect partner for me and my team. Renaissance JMW’s aim is to become the No. 1 investment firm for companies headquartered anywhere on the globe who want performance and results from energy transactions. As the international oil and gas industry faces profound challenges, we will help to strike the right balance between the holders of the resource, be they state oil companies, super majors, independents or investors.

“The Renaissance JMW team has outstanding transactional and technical expertise as well as a wealth of multi-cultural and multi-linguistic capabilities ideally suited for our work in emerging markets. The geographical reach of our offices, combined with those of Renaissance, will allow us to provide services and facilities on the ground in far more geographies than any other oil & gas advisor. The oil & gas industry needs a more thoughtful and sophisticated approach to asset optimization, capital re-deployment, and investing – from a specialist and independent firm. Renaissance JMW, as an independent and dedicated practice, will serve our clients with intelligent alternatives and integrity."

Andrew Cornthwaite, Deputy CEO and Head of Investment Banking at Renaissance Capital, said:

“The establishment of Renaissance JMW significantly extends the ability of Renaissance Capital to add value to its clients in the oil & gas sector up and down the value chain. As well as our traditional strengths in equity capital markets and corporate M&A, we are adding a highly specialized capability to provide advice and ideas involving oil & gas assets themselves. The technical and research teams will add massively to the already extensive sector capabilities which we have within Renaissance Capital.

“For Renaissance Capital the establishment of new offices in Turkey, India, Bahrain and Morocco is also a significant step in implementing our strategy of establishing an on the ground presence in markets where our emerging markets experience and expertise can add value for clients. The oil & gas industry is a global one, and this initial announcement of new offices will be followed by further openings over the next 18 months. ”