Goldman Sachs Energy Banker Batchelder Joins RBC in N.Y.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)’s Eric Batchelder, a managing director who advised energy and power companies, left to join Royal Bank of Canada (RY)’s investment- banking unit.

Batchelder joined RBC Capital Markets LLC as a managing director last week, spokeswoman Elisa Barsotti said. He will focus on investment banking for “master limited partnerships,” companies that mainly manage oil and gas pipelines.

Batchelder had worked at New York-based Goldman Sachs since at least 2002, according to the Finra website. He was promoted to managing director, the company’s second-highest rank behind partner, in 2011. The records show he remains based in New York.

Batchelder helped advise Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy LLC last year on the $1.9 billion sale of a collection of plants and pipelines in Texas and Louisiana to partnerships controlled by Energy Transfer Equity LP. (ETE)

Batchelder also advised on fundraising efforts for Longview Power LLC, which built a $2 billion coal-fired power plant in West Virginia.

Sparkspread.com reported earlier this year that Batchelder was leaving Goldman Sachs.

Doug McGregor, co-head of RBC Capital Markets, said in an interview in December that the unit was slowing its expansion after more than doubling headcount during the previous five years.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zachary R. Mider in New York at zmider1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeffrey McCracken at jmccracken3@bloomberg.net