The Rothschilds have enlisted some of Europe’s wealthiest families, including the billionaire brothers behind luxury group Chanel, to help take the Franco-British investment bank private, in a deal that values one of the best known names in global finance at €3.7bn.
Concordia, the Rothschild family holding company that controls the bank, said on Monday that four industrial dynasties will accompany it in a buyout of minority investors and become long-term stakeholders in a business that encompasses global advisory, merchant banking, and asset and wealth management.
Among major new investors, the Rothschilds have tapped the Peugeot family, known primarily for its links to the eponymous car company, as well as Mousse Partners, which manages investments for the Wertheimer brothers who own Chanel, and Hannah Rothschild, an author and filmmaker who is part of the British strand of the Rothschild family.
France’s Dassault family and Italian entrepreneur Giammaria Giuliani will also take part. The Dassaults and Giuliani were already investors in Rothschild alongside Concordia.
Details of the take-private were unveiled as Rothschild & Co reported its financial results for 2022. Overall group revenues grew 1 per cent to €2.96bn.
Full-year revenue in global advisory, its largest division, dropped 4 per cent to €1.84bn, and profits before tax dropped 12 per cent to €372mn.
This follows a record year for the global advisory business in 2021, and reflects a wider slump in deal making, as rising interest rates and economic uncertainty brought a period of frenzied activity during the peak of the pandemic to an abrupt close.
