Concordia, the Dutch-registered master holding company of the dynastic Rothschild family, has said that it has taken the steps to take investment bank Rothschild & Co. private.

On Thursday, Concordia said that it had acquired all the shares it was permitted to of Rothschild – 8.18 million shares at €46.60 per share for a total purchase price of over €381 million.

French market regulator AMF will now make a clearance decision, after which Concordia will make an offer to delist the bank and take it private.

While Rothschild & Co. was established as an advisory for mergers and acquisitions, its business has developed over the past three decades into private equity, wealth management and debt financing. Earlier this year, the company now led by Alexandre Rothschild said that the expansion of the business means that it no longer needs as much access to capital from the private equity market.

At the time, Concordia said: "Furthermore, each of the businesses is better assessed on the basis of their long-term performance rather than short-term earnings. This makes private ownership of the Group more appropriate than a public listing."

At the end of 2022, the Rothschild family owned around 55 per cent of the bank's shares and 69 per cent of exercisable voting rights. Concordia owned a 39 per cent stake.

The decision to take the bank private did not come as a surprise to the market when it was announced, with the move set to protect it from day-to-day scrutiny at a time of slower M&A activity and falling advisory fees.

In May, the former employer of now-French president Emmanuel Macron posted a 10 per cent drop in first-quarter sales, with total group revenue down from €675.3 million in 2022 to €606.2 million.

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