The iconic Rothschild family, whose accumulated if mostly hidden wealth is according to some among the world's greatest fortunes, is planning to take its flagship investment bank, Rothschild & Co, private. The bank, whose predecessors helped finance the Duke of Wellington’s victory over Napoleon in 1815 at the battle of Waterloo, announced Monday that its main shareholder plans a tender offer valuing the firm at about €3.7 billion, or $4 billion.
The move, which comes at a time when many of its peers are going the opposite route and seeking public capital, would end public ownership of a firm that in one form or another has been listed since 1838, according to a spokeswoman. As Bloomberg notes, the private buyout will mark the latest step in the family’s efforts to cement control, after a 2012 reorganization effectively brought the French and British businesses under one roof and simplified the organization structure.
Like most standalone contemporary investment banks, the Paris-based firm generates the majority of its revenue from providing financial advisory to what can easily be called the deepest rolodex in the world, though it also has a wealth and asset management unit as well as merchant banking business. Led by the 42-year-old Alexandre de Rothschild since 2018 (whose great, great, great, great grandfather is Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild dynasty), the bank has been expanding in the US and managed to sidestep much of the slump in the market for deal advisory, ranking 6th by the number of mergers and acquisitions last year according to Bloomberg.