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“The last shoe to drop will be the reserve redeterminations in the spring of 2016,” Fagerheim said. “That will be where you’re going to get a real determination of what people look like, from their updated reserve report perspective. The values will be what they will be … I think we will see a pick up (in transactions) coming into mid-2016, first quarter, second quarter 2016.”

A panellist looking forward to the takeovers is Zach George, portfolio manager of Connecticut-based hedge fund FrontFour Capital, the company that led a proxy fight at Legacy Oil + Gas earlier this year before Legacy was purchased by Crescent Point Energy Corp. for $1.45 billion.

George said there are very attractive investment options in Western Canada that aren’t well understood by general institutional investors who don’t take into account the currency differential between Canada and the United States.

He said corporate consolidation is needed to drive down administrative costs and deliver better returns to shareholders.

“We’re now at a point where even conservative institutional investors, who typically vote with their feet and who would rather sell their shares than engage in what could be a difficult conversation, even behind closed doors with the management team, are now clamouring for consolidation, wanting to see transactions,” said George.

Drew Ross, managing director for Scotia Waterous, said in an earlier presentation that his M&A advisory firm’s research shows that while capital markets have beaten up on most energy stocks, the most heavily punished are the ones with high debt levels compared with cash flow. It has also found that bigger companies have been able to hang on to more of their equity value than smaller firms.