PB: Rothschild take-private caps a century of power struggles

PitchBook‘s Jessica Hamlin writes:

The Rothschilds, one of Europe’s most storied families, are reclaiming the keys to their kingdom, keeping with the family’s enduring efforts to remain in control of their financial empire.

Earlier this month, Rothschild & Co Concordia, the family’s holding company and largest shareholder of Rothschild & Co, announced plans to take the group private through a tender offer. Alongside a handful of France’s wealthiest families, the more than 200-year-old financial services group intends to squeeze minority investors out of their shares at a premium on the public exchange and reclaim about 60% of Rothschild & Co’s share capital for the family and other majority owners.

The play is closely aligned with the firm’s former longtime leader David de Rothschild’s ethos. After losing the business to the French government’s nationalization of 32 banks in 1982, David de Rothschild made it his mission to maintain family control of the financial behemoth. In 2018, he told a Financial Times reporter that his goal was to “preserve the family ownership” of the company, meaning avoiding any move that would dilute the family’s shareholding…

A look into the Rothschild family history is here.