Black Spruce Merchant Capital Inc., the energy investment banking and advisory firm, has increased staffing at its Calgary office as oil patch activity heats up.
Black Spruce has hired Dale Styner as managing director, giving him a client-management role concentrating on domestic energy and oil field services.
Mr. Steiner has two decades of experience in merchant banking as well as securities and corporate law. Most recently he was corporate secretary at Sonoro Energy Ltd. Previously, he had worked as an investment banker with Black Spruce's partners, Sonny Mottahed and Jeff Barber, at Canaccord Adams.
The firm also hired recent Concordia University grad Jonathan Florence as an investment banking analyst.
The hires come with merger-and-acquisition activity in the energy sector on the rise following a weak year. Since the start of 2014, there have been more than $7-billion worth of deals, compared with just $750-million in the first three months of 2013.