David de Rothschild, the 75-year-old head of the legendary banking empire, will step down and hand over the reins to his son, Alexandre, 37, as early as this summer, reports FT.
Alexandre de Rothschild will become the seventh generation of the dynasty to take charge of the Franco-British investment bank, which was founded in 1838. The young Rothschild currently serves as executive deputy chairman at the bank.
He first joined Rothschild during the 2008 financial crisis, shifting from the position of a manager at private equity firm, Argan Capital. Before that, he briefly worked for the Bear Sterns, a New York lender that collapsed during the crisis.
The handover, scheduled for June, comes amid the bank’s longstanding plan to diversify from its core French and British advisory business to reportedly help Rothschild come through less buoyant periods in Europe’s mergers and acquisitions market.
The investment bank, one of the oldest in the world, was started by Mayer Amschel Rothschild as a French railway company. Later, five of Mayer’s sons established banking businesses across Europe. In 2012, Rothschild integrated its French and UK units under a French-listed company, Paris Orleans. Three years later, the enterprise was renamed Rothschild & Co.
The investment bank is run as a financial holding company that covers investment banking, corporate banking, private equity, asset management, and private banking. The corporation reportedly employs around 2,800 people in 40 countries, its website says. The bank's half-year revenue stood at €852 million, according to latest data.
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