Chanel execs want Rothschild Bank taken private

Rothschild & Co., a French financial advisory firm, is set to go private with backing from the Wertheimer, Peugeot, and Dassault families, as well as Giammaria Giuliani of Italy. The move comes at a price of €48 per share, valued at roughly €3.7 billion for the bank. Other members of the Rothschild family and the Maurel family will also join the group of investors. According to Concordia, the bank’s businesses no longer require capital from public equity markets, and the move marks a further effort by the Rothschilds to secure control of the Paris-based institution. The investors will be locked in for eight years.

Francois Perol, a managing partner at Rothschild & Co., said the investors share similar perspectives on developing the bank. Rothschild & Co. generates the majority of its revenue from financial advisory work, with wealth and asset management and merchant banking also contributing to the company’s revenue. The bank’s leader, Alexandre de Rothschild, has been expanding the institution in the US and has ranked sixth for mergers and acquisitions in the market.

Concordia already owns 38.9% of the firm’s shares and 47.5% of the voting rights. Following delisting, expected at the end of August, Concordia will own 55% of the bank’s capital, while long-term investors will have 35%, and the bank’s partners will have 10%, according to Perol.

The going-private move comes after the death of Evelyn de Rothschild, former head of the British branch of the banking group, at the age of 91. The family’s center of power has moved to Paris under the leadership of his cousin David de Rothschild, and his son, Alexandre. Among the investors backing the bank is a member of the UK Rothschild family branch, Hannah Rothschild, a documentary filmmaker and author. David de Rothschild’s side of the family has 39.42% of Concordia’s voting rights, while his cousin Eric de Rothschild’s has 55.6%.