Rothschild & Co's first-quarter sales fall 10% as dealmaking slides

By Mathieu Rosemain

PARIS (Reuters) - Rothschild & Co, the Paris-listed investment bank being taken private by its owners, posted a 10% drop in first-quarter sales on Tuesday, as global mergers and acquisition activity fell to the lowest level in more than a decade.

The bank, controlled by the eponymous financial dynasty and led by Alexandre de Rothschild, said total group revenue over the first three months of 2023 fell to 606.2 million euros ($667.30 million) from 675.3 million euros in 2022.

Sales from M&A advisory, Rothschild's biggest activity, tumbled by 29% to 219 million euros, the firm said, while revenue from structuring and advising on corporate finance rose 4% to 108 million euros.

Rothschild's wealth and asset management unit fared better, with sales up 20%, while its private equity division saw revenue fall by 24% to 72 million euros, due to lower unrealised valuations in dedicated funds.

The Rothschild family's holding company Concordia is planning to take the bank private, arguing that it no longer has as much need to access capital from equity markets and that the businesses are better assessed on the basis of their long-term prospects rather than their short-term performance.

On Tuesday, the group said that Concordia was "on track" to file its buyout offer by the end of June of this year.

The offer of 48 euros per share, including dividends, values the bank at 3.7 billion euros, and will result in three of France's wealthiest families, including the owners of fashion brand Chanel and the Peugeot family, take a 5% stake each in the private entity.

Rothschild said it expects "significant uncertainty" over deal activity for the rest of the year and it remains "cautious" in assessing the outlook for 2023 in that field.

($1 = 0.9084 euros)

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Sharon Singleton)