BHF Kleinwort Benson Group

BHF Kleinwort Benson Group (formerly RHJ International) was a financial services group, formerly listed on the Euronext stock exchange in Belgium,^[2] 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.^[3][4]

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 in during the 2010s.

History

Prior to being listed on the Euronext the company was a private equity fund run by Ripplewood Holdings. Timothy C. Collins, the founder of Ripplewood, is one of the company's largest shareholders and a director of the company.

In October 2009, the company announced it would acquire Kleinwort Benson from Commerzbank AG for £225 million. This transaction closed in July 2010. Earlier in his career, RHJI's current CEO, Leonhard Fischer had worked in senior positions for Dresdner Bank AG, the previous owner of Kleinwort Benson.^[5] Fischer and his senior management team have 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 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 £26 million, bringing both of these acquisitions together under the Kleinwort Benson brand. Other financial services acquisitions include interests in Arecon and Quirin Bank.

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, 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. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals from a number of regulators, including the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).

In line with its strategy to transform itself into a focused financial services group, RHJI has also made a number of divestments from its legacy industrial portfolio in recent years. These include the sale of Niles Co. Ltd in June 2011 and of Asahi Tec and Phoenix Seagaia in early 2012. These divestments have netted total sales proceeds of €279 million and have resulted in the legacy industrial portfolio representing less than 15% of RHJI's total investments as at 30 September 2012. Future planned divestments from the legacy industrial portfolio include RHJI's stakes in Shaklee and SigmaXYZ, which had a combined book value of €60 million at the end of September 2012.

In 2015, shareholders approved a name change to "BHF Kleinwort Benson Group".^[6]

See also

• Ripplewood Holdings

Notes