BHF Kleinwort Benson Group (formerly RHJ International) was a

financial services Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...

group, formerly listed on the Euronext stock exchange in Belgium, with principal activities in wealth management, asset management and merchant banking. It was acquired by Oddo & Cie in 2016 and was later sold in the year to Amundi and Société Générale. In line with its strategy to transform itself into a focused financial services group, RHJI had also made a number of divestments from its legacy industrial portfolio and purchases of financial services companies during the 2010s.

History

Prior to being listed on the Euronext the company was a

private equity fund A private equity fund (abbreviated as PE fund) is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity (and to a lesser extent debt) securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity ...

run by

Ripplewood Holdings Ripplewood is an American private equity firm based in New York City that focuses on leveraged buyouts, late stage venture, growth capital, management buyouts, leveraged recapitalizations and other illiquid investments. Ripplewood was founded ...

Timothy C. Collins Timothy C. Collins, born 1956, is the founder, senior managing director, and chief executive officer of Ripplewood Holdings LLC. He is also a member of the board of directors of Citigroup. Collins is a director of several public companies as wel ...

, the founder of Ripplewood, was one of the company's largest shareholders and a director of the company. In October 2009, the company announced it would acquire

Kleinwort Benson Kleinwort Benson was a leading investment bank that offered a wide range of financial services from offices throughout the United Kingdom and Channel Islands. Two families, the Kleinworts and the Bensons, founded two different merchant banks in L ...

from

Commerzbank Commerzbank AG () is a major German bank operating as a universal bank, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. In the 2019 financial year, the bank was the second largest in Germany by the total value of its balance sheet. Founded in 1870 in Hambur ...

AG for £225 million. This transaction closed in July 2010. Earlier in his career, RHJI's CEO, Leonhard Fischer had worked in senior positions for

Dresdner Bank Dresdner Bank AG was a German bank and was based in Frankfurt. It was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in May 2009. History 19th century The Dresdner Bank was established on 12 Novemb ...

AG, the previous owner of Kleinwort Benson. Fischer and his senior management team transformed RHJI into a focused financial services group by leveraging Kleinwort Benson's strong brand and growing its well-capitalized private banking and

investment management Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be institut ...

businesses. In line with this transformation strategy, RHJI acquired KBC Asset Management Ltd in October 2010 for €24 million, renaming it Kleinwort Benson Investors, and Close Offshore Group in June 2011 for £29 million, bringing both of these acquisitions together under the Kleinwort Benson brand. In July 2011, RHJI announced that its Kleinwort Benson Group subsidiary was in exclusive negotiations with Deutsche Bank regarding a potential acquisition of

BHF Bank ODDO BHF is an independent Franco-German financial services group. It was created from the alliance of a French family-owned business built up by five generations of stockbrokers and a German bank specialising in Mittelstand companies. With ...

, one of Germany's strongest banking brands, with operations in private banking, asset management, financial markets and corporate banking. In June 2012, RHJI announced that it had secured the support of co-investors to finance the acquisition and, in September 2012, announced that it had reached agreement with Deutsche Bank to acquire BHF-Bank for €384 million. In line with its strategy to transform itself into a focused financial services group, RHJI also made a number of divestments from its legacy industrial portfolio. These included the sale of Niles Co. Ltd for $188 million in June 2011 and of Asahi Tec for €142 million and Phoenix Seagaia for €3.7 million in early 2012. In March 2015, shareholders approved a name change to "BHF Kleinwort Benson Group". It was acquired by Oddo & Cie in early 2016 and was later sold in the year to Amundi and Société Générale.

Notes

{{Reflist, 30em Financial services companies established in 1786 Holding companies of Belgium Companies in the BEL Mid Index Companies based in Brussels

History

See also

Notes