Concordia, holding company of the Rothschild family, holds 95.65% of the capital of the investment bank Rothshild & Co following its takeover bid opened in July with the aim of withdrawing it from the Stock Exchange, the Autorite des financial markets (AMF).
The bank’s largest shareholder with then nearly 40% of the capital, Concordia announced in February its intention to make a public purchase offer. It sought to acquire the securities that it did not hold and which were also not held by the other members of the shareholders’ agreement concluded in February, i.e. approximately 45% of the shares.
Following the closing of the transaction on September 8, the Rothschild family holding company directly and jointly holds 73,909,273 Rothschild & Co shares, representing 112,552,171 voting rights, or 95.65% of the capital and 95.79% of the company’s voting rights.
Based on this result, Concordia will soon submit a request for implementation of the squeeze-out procedure to the AMF, in accordance with what was announced at the launch of the takeover bid, Concordia indicated in a press release.
The squeeze-out will be carried out under the same financial conditions as the takeover bid, i.e. 38.60 euros per Rothschild & Co share, added the holding company, without further comment.
On the Paris Stock Exchange, trading of Rothschild & Co securities was suspended at a price of 38.35 euros pending the implementation of the squeeze-out.
To be able to carry out a public buyout offer (OPR), Concordia had to hold at least 90% of the shares.
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Several big names in French capitalism – present in the shareholders’ agreement – including the Peugeot and Wertheimer (Chanel) families were to enter into the capital of the investment bank as part of the operation, which values the bank around 3 billion euros.
None of the group’s businesses require recourse to the capital markets. Furthermore, their performance must be assessed over the long term. The status of a private company therefore appears more relevant than that of a listed company, the holding company specified in February to justify its plan to withdraw from the Stock Exchange in the event of a favorable outcome of the takeover bid.
Lazard’s great rival, the Rothschild & Co group has no capital links with the Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild, named after the baron who founded it, in the hands of another branch of the family.