Executive Chairman of Rothschild Group Baron David de Rothschild speaks during an award ceremony at the Frankfurt Euro Finance Week in Frankfurt November 19, 2012.
PARIS--Three of France's wealthiest families, including the owners of luxury group Chanel and the Peugeot family, are set to invest in a deal to take Paris-based investment bank Rothschild & Co private.
Concordia, the bank's controlling shareholder and holding company of the Rothschild family, an influential financial dynasty whose history traces back to the 18th century and Frankfurt's Jewish ghetto, said in a statement on Monday that the Dassault family, with investments encompassing newspapers and aviation, would also back the take-private deal. The offer of 48 euros per share, including dividends, values the bank at 3.7 billion euros ($3.97 billion).
The families backing the deal would join the Rothschild family, which controls 55% of the eponymous bank and 67% of its voting rights, as long-time investors. They would end up holding about 5% of the investment bank each, and would be locked into the shares for at least eight years.
"What brings together all of these investors is that they are long-term investors and that they share the same beliefs about the development of a company like ours," Rothschild & Co's managing partner, Francois Perol, told reporters. "These are families that all have a relationship of trust with the Rothschild family for different reasons."
The investors also include Italian health entrepreneur Giammaria Giuliani.
Rothschild & Co, best known for its deal-making division that once employed French President Emmanuel Macron, has grown over the last three decades beyond pure advisory for mergers and acquisitions and into wealth management, private equity and debt financing. Because of that, the bank, formerly led by David de Rothschild and now by his son Alexandre, does not need access to capital from the stock market and does not see the benefits of a public listing.
Under the current calendar, Rothschild's holding Concordia aims to de-list the investment bank by August or September of this year, depending on the duration of the tender offer. Concordia will partially finance the buyout with loans. It said it had signed commitment letters with two lenders.
One of the two is Natixis, the corporate and investment unit of French bank BPCE, a person familiar with the matter said. Natixis declined to comment.
Rothschild reported a 4% fall in its full-year revenues for the deal-making division, while wealth and asset management revenues grew by 19% and merchant banking was up 2%.
