Rothschild & Co's Full-Year Results Shine

Tom Burroughes

1 March 2022

Paris-based Rothschild & Co this week reported net income, excluding one-off items, of €766 million for 2021, surging from €173 million a year before, helped by a jump in operating income and revenue.

Revenue rose to €2.925 billion, rising 63 per cent on a year ago; operating income surged by 202 per cent to €1.131 billion, the group said in a statement yesterday.

Within its wealth and asset management arm, the group revenue rose 19 per cent to €593 million, and profit before tax came in at €117 million . Assets under management rose 25 per cent to €103.9 billion at the end of last year from a year before, due to a mix of €4.1 billion in net new money, its purchase of Banque Pâris Bertrand and positive market performance .

Performance in the global advisory and merchant banking arms also contributed to the positive overall result, Rothschild & Co said. Global advisory notched up a record full-year revenue number of €1.915 billion, rising 67 per cent; pre-tax profit was €421 million. Merchant Banking reported full-year revenue gains of 169 per cent to €398 million and pre-tax profit of €292 million , as a result of substantial realised and unrealised investment gains, combined with further growth in recurring revenues.

The firm said it proposes a dividend of €3.79 per share, made up of a normal dividend of €1.15 per share, up 29 per cent to reflect its optimism, a special dividend of €1.60 per share – based on the strong results for 2021 as well as an interim dividend of €1.04, already paid in October 2021. Once approval is received, Rothschild & Co intends to launch the previously-announced share buyback of up to €70 million.