Gulf Publishing Company completes management buyout, marks 100-year anniversary

HOUSTON -- As it celebrates 100 years of producing and distributing flagship publications, data products and events for the oil and gas industry, Gulf Publishing Company announces today the successful management buyout of its energy information business from its London-based parent company, Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.

The buyout was led by Gulf Publishing Company’s President and CEO John Royall and Houston investor Russell Denson, with financing from Main Street Capital Corporation (NYSE: MAIN.) The new independent company will retain the name Gulf Publishing Company and will continue to publish its three energy magazines including World Oil, Hydrocarbon Processing, and Gas Processing, and will add the London-based oil and gas business and strategy journal Petroleum Economist. Gulf Publishing Company also produces events and data intelligence for the energy industry.

“We are now a Houston-based independent company serving the oil and gas industry from the energy capital of the world,” said John Royall, who continues to serve as president and CEO. “It is a time of transition for the publishing industry as well as the oil and gas industry, and we are bullish on the future of both. As an independent company, we have a great opportunity to advance our legacy as a venerable Houston institution that has been reporting on the oil and gas business for 100 years.”

Russell Denson serves as chairman of Gulf Publishing Holdings, the new parent company of Gulf Publishing Company, and is a veteran of the publishing industry. 

“We are confident that Gulf Publishing Company has a strong future as we serve the information needs of the global oil and gas industry,” said Denson. 

Gulf Publishing Company was incorporated in Texas in 1916 by a team of oil company executives and oilfield equipment manufacturers, as wildcat discoveries were being made in Goose Creek field along the Houston Ship Channel. The company began operating by producing a weekly publication originally entitled Gulf Coast Oil News. It soon found its niche reporting on an exciting and evolving industry, eventually becoming World Oil magazine. 

“What great timing to restore Gulf Publishing Company to a Houston independent business on the centennial celebration of its formation,” said Royall. “We look forward to exciting times ahead for both the energy industry and the energy information business.” 

Gulf Publishing Company will be exhibiting at the 2016 Offshore Technology Conference, May 2-5, at the World Oil booth 2805.