| Type | Corporation (Aktiengesellschaft) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Banking Financial services |
| Founded | 1854 |
| Headquarters | Frankfurt am Main |
| Key people | Björn H. Robens, CEO |
| Total assets | €18.7 Billion (2009) |
| Employees | ca. 2000 (2009) |
| Website | www.bhf-bank.com |
BHF-Bank is a German private bank with a high reputation in Germany. It was amongst the leading German investment banks in the 1970s and 1980s, and also held a top position in the foreign exchange market. It is currently owned by Deutsche Bank. The bank also has an international presence, with branches in Luxembourg, Switzerland, the UAE, Egypt and Vietnam.
BHF-Bank was formed on the 1st January 1970 as the Berliner Handels- and Frankfurter Bank from the merger of the Frankfurter Bank (founded in 1854) and the Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft (founded in 1856). It changed its name to BHF-Bank in 1975. Through the 1970s and 1980s it was amongst the three or five leading investment bank in West Germany and also took a top position in the foreign exchange market. The bank also had extensive industrial holdings. Its former senior partner, Hanns Schroeder-Hohenwarth, became the President of the German Banks Association from 1983-1987.
In 1995 the bank went public, changing from a partnership to a corporation.
From 1999 to 2004 it was bought by the dutch ING Group and renamed from 2002 ING BHF-Bank. In the same year it was delisted following the Squeeze out of remain share holders.
In 2004 ING BHF-Bank was split in two, with the larger part comprising the branches and investments being integrated into a newly found BHF-Bank Aktiengesellschaft which was wholly owned by the private bank Sal. Oppenheim.
Sal. Oppenheim was itself taken over by Deutsche Bank in 2010. On the 23 December 2010, Deutsche Bank revealed in a press conference that it had agreed in the key point of the sale of BHF-Bank to the Lichtenstein royal family owned LGT Group.[1]
Since 2002, the BHF-Bank Foundation has awarded every two years the €20,000 Brücke Berlin-Preis for central and east European literature and its outstanding translation into German. Additionally, from 2006, the foundation also sponsors the German Conductor Prize (Deutscher Dirigentenpreis) in cooperation with the Deutscher Musikrat (German Music Council, a member of the International Music Council) and German Symphony Orchestra Berlin.