PARIS, March 19 (Reuters) - Ariane de Rothschild dismissed on Tuesday talk of merging Edmond de Rothschild, the Geneva-based private bank she runs, with Paris-based investment bank Rothschild & Co as "fantasy", adding that such a move would create little value.
The two Rothschild groups are controlled by different branches of the banking dynasty whose history dates back to an 18th century Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt, Germany.
French bank Rothschild & Co's recent expansion into private banking and asset management has increased speculation among analysts that merging with the Swiss bank run by Ariane de Rothschild would make strategic sense, as both use the same banking name while increasingly competing head-to-head.
"There is a fantasy of merging these two banks," the Edmond de Rothschild CEO said in an interview.
"We're still two very different banks. Rothschild & Co, with a predominantly M&A business, is now very active and dynamic in private banking and asset management. Our core business is private banking and asset management," she told Reuters.
Rothschild & Co declined to comment.
Ariane de Rothschild, who joined the Rothschild family through her marriage to Benjamin de Rothschild, the son of the Swiss bank's founder, became its CEO last year. Her husband died in 2021, aged 57, of a heart attack.
The 58-year-old CEO said her aim was to keep the bank within her family and involve her four daughters, who so far have no operational role in the business. The Swiss bank was taken private by the family in 2019.
"I think the two banks are doing perfectly well, each in its own field... a merger is interesting when you have a real creation of value too. I'm not sure that there's a major creation of value for this type of merger," she added.
Rothschild & Co was taken private in 2023 in a family-led 3.7 billion euro ($4 billion) deal that involved several other French industrial dynasties including the Peugeots, the Dassaults and the Wertheimers, who own Chanel.
Ariane de Rothschild said she saw room for consolidation in the Swiss private banking market given the large number of players and because regulators would like to see fewer banks.
Edmond de Rothschild on Tuesday reported a year-on-year 41% jump in core operating profit for 2023 of 243 million Swiss francs ($274 million), helped by rising interest rates and revenues that rose more than costs.
Full-year revenues were up 10% to 1.063 billion Swiss francs. Assets under management rose 5% to 164 billion Swiss francs, the Swiss bank said in a statement. ($1 = 0.8877 Swiss francs) ($1 = 0.9208 euros) (Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Writing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Alexander Smith)
