The family's Swiss wealth manager wants to put an end to speculation it is for sale. It is also making a series of C-suite changes amid a bid to double its client assets – and wouldn't mind winning some clients off Credit Suisse.
Edmond de Rothschild's majority owner Ariane de Rothschild outlined the Geneva-based firm's mid-term strategy, in a carefully orchestrated media offensive on Tuesday. She placed three key messages in interviews with the «Financial Times» (behind paywall), «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» (behind paywall, in German), and «Le Temps» (behind paywall, in French).
The first is that Edmond de Rothschild is not for sale and in fact, is on the hunt for acquisitions of its own. The second is that the wealth and asset manager wants to double its client assets in the coming five years to 350 billion Swiss francs ($388 billion). The third is a series of management changes, mainly of current associates.
Return to Asia?
Ariane de Rothschild pulled the bank out of Asia in 2016. Now, she sees an opportunity to win wealthy clients in the region – including those disgruntled by Credit Suisse's Greensill implosion.
«We are starting to look at Asian markets and developing our presence in the Middle East,» she told the «FT.» The firm is also playing up its family ties and low-risk approach to attract new investors: «We, by definition, are low risk because it's my duty to protect my clients' money and it's my duty to protect my family's money.» Following the death of Benjamin de Rothschild, she and her four daughters are the family firm's main shareholders.
While not commenting on Greensill and Credit Suisse, she referred to prominent recent blow-ups as «regrettable overall for the financial industry because they give a really bad view of what it is about. Clients are highly sensitive to reputational risk.»
Planned Retreat
François Pauly will replace Vincent Taupin as CEO of Edmond de Rothschild’s Swiss bank, the Genevan wealth manager said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. Though Taupin’s retirement comes less than six months after the bank’s majority owner Benjamin de Rothschild died in January, the two events appear unrelated.
Taupin had agreed a set tenure of the 175 billion Swiss francs ($194 billion) bank when he took over two years ago, Ariane de Rothschild told «NZZ,» a Swiss daily.
Pauly has been vice-chairman of Rothschild's board since 2016. He was previously CEO and then chairman of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL) and is also a senior adviser to Castik, a Luxembourg-based private equity house.
Veteran Asset Manager
Ariane de Rothschild is making other key changes as well: she is advancing Cynthia Tobiano, the bank’s finance chief and Taupin’s deputy, to CEO of Edmond de Rothschild’s holding group at year-end. Lastly, she is enlisting former Amundi boss Yves Perrier to join the board of Rothschild’s holding as well as that of its Swiss-based bank.
Perrier was the first CEO of Amundi, created when Crédit Agricole and Société Générale pooled their businesses in a landmark 2010 move. The French banker is well-known for more than doubling the asset manager's funds as well as a daring consolidation push including Pioneer (Unicredit’s money-management arm) and Banco de Sabadell’s asset management arm.
Edmond de Rothschild's business mix underscores Perrier's value: roughly 40 percent of its assets sit in a private banking arm overseen by Michel Longhini, who Rothschild poached in 2019 – the remainder is asset management money.
On The Prowl for Deals
Acquisitions appear to figure prominently in the company's growth plans. «We monitor the market like any bank and think about where there are interesting opportunities to buy – banks, asset managers, or in private equity,» Ariane de Rothschild told «NZZ».
This echoes comments by Rothschild's top asset manager, Christophe Caspar, to «Citywire» on Monday, who highlighted three Rothschild real estate deals in recent years – Cleaveland (2016), Cording (2017), and Orox (2012).
Flurry of Reforms
Ariane de Rothschild noted that the company's distinct culture requires seven or eight years until it is ingrained by targets it acquires. This is not to say the 68-year-old firm is impermeable to change: she was a whirlwind of activity after taking over as CEO of Edmond de Rothschild in 2015, until she appointed Taupin to the job in 2019.
She pulled the private bank out of Asia (2016), replaced the bank’s aging technology with a pricey Avaloq platform (2017), buried a messy family spat with the French-British Rothschilds (2018), and merged the bank’s French operations into the Swiss-based group (2019). She and her husband ultimately delisted its shares last year.
