>>21833998 lb
Warring branches of the Rothschild banking dynasty have settled a dispute over the family name after a bitter three-year French legal fight that centred on which part of the clan could claim the moniker of their 18th century patriarch Mayer Amschel Rothschild.
Edmond de Rothschild, a Franco-Swiss private bank and €156bn asset manager that also owns vineyards and the new Four Seasons Hotel Megève, had issued a cease-and-desist order to French bank Rothschild & Cie, arguing its owners unfairly referred to themselves as “parent of the Rothschild group” — implying it had sole claim to the name.
Friday’s agreement between Rothschild & Co, the Anglo-French parent of Rothschild & Cie, and Edmond de Rothschild would bar both groups from using the Rothschild name by itself in branding. Instead, they will use only their full names to build future business and both vowed to “work together to protect the family name in the banking sector”.
The deal, which will also see the groups unwind cross-shareholdings in each other, was reached only after David de Rothschild, 75, retired as chairman of Rothschild & Co, handing the reins to his son Alexandre, who became the seventh generation of the family to lead the bank.