Denver-based Petroleum Place LLC has completed its merger with Calgary- and Houston-based asset-sales and investment-banking firm Tristone Capital Inc. for C$101 million, giving Petroleum Place an energy investment-banking business and a Canadian asset-sales practice. The combined company has been renamed Tristone Energy Services LLC and will be the holding company for its two primary operating entities: Tristone Capital Inc. and P2 Energy Solutions. Petroleum Place owned the negotiated transaction business Petroleum Place Energy Advisors, the asset-auction business The Oil & Gas Asset Clearinghouse and enterprise-solutions business P2 Energy Solutions (P2ES). Petroleum Place Energy Advisors LP has changed its name to Tristone Capital and the new organization now has locations in Calgary, Houston and London. The Oil & Gas Asset Clearinghouse has become an affiliate of Tristone Capital and will be expanding its operations into Canada. The closing deal terms are revised from the original announcement in fourth-quarter 2004, which had Petroleum Place Energy Advisors as the surviving entity. George Gosbee, founder of Tristone Capital, will retain his title as chairman, president and CEO as well as president of the holding company, Tristone Energy Services. Rob Bilger, president of Petroleum Place Energy Advisors, is now executive managing director of U.S. acquisitions and divestitures, and Ken Olive is executive managing director of auctions. They will work alongside three other existing Tristone executive managing directors: Brad Hurtubise, corporate finance; David Vankka, capital markets; and Tom Ebbern, institutional research. Gary Vickers, formerly president and CEO of Petroleum Place, will become chairman and CEO of the holding company. "This is a complementary fit that makes strategic, financial and business sense," says Gosbee. "It gives us a great platform into the U.S. in which we can expand our corporate-finance and capital-markets services." With the roll-in of Petroleum Place Energy Advisors and The Oil & Gas Asset Clearinghouse, Tristone has become the largest A&D firm in North America with more than 100 professionals dedicated to the A&D business. Tristone will start a capital-markets group in Houston to complement its Canadian institutional sales, trading and research group in Calgary. Following that, Tristone will be the first full-service, energy-advisory firm in North America. -A&D Watch