Rothschilds plan buyout of family bank

The announcement sent Rothschild & Co's shares soaring 17%

The Rothschild family is planning to take Rothschild & Co, its namesake financial services group and one of the globe’s most prestigious investment banks, private, the family’s holding company, Concordia, announced on Monday.

According to the statement, the family views private ownership of Rothschild & Co as “more appropriate than a public listing.”

“None of the businesses of the group needs access to capital from the public equity markets. Furthermore, each of the businesses is better assessed on the basis of their long-term performance rather than short-term earnings,” Concordia stated.

Concordia, which is the largest shareholder in Rothschild & Co with 38.9% of shares and 47.5% of the voting rights, said it would file a tender offer for the bank’s remaining shares at €48 each. It will be a premium of 19% against the bank’s previous closing price of €40.25, and would value the group at roughly €3.7 billion ($4 billion), according to Bloomberg estimations.

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Concordia plans to submit the private ownership plan to shareholders at its annual general meeting on May 25, with the official filing of the offer expected by the end of the first half of 2023.

The news of the proposed buyout sent shares in Rothschild & Co soaring 17%, according to trading data.

Rothschild & Co is currently listed in Paris. It is a multinational investment bank and one of the world's largest independent financial advisory companies. It consists of three divisions – global advisory, wealth and asset management, and merchant banking. The current structure of Rothschild & Co dates back to 2012 and a merger between its French and UK branches.

Rothchild & Co worked on some of the most notable European deals last year, including Volkswagen’s IPO of Porsche and the nationalization of German energy giant Uniper.

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