Benoît Theunissen: Can you introduce the Oddo BHF Group?
Philippe Oddo: The origins of the group go back to 1849, in France. In 2016 we became a Franco-German player after acquiring Meriten Investment Management, Seydler and BHF-Bank in Germany. Since then, we have more employees and assets under management in Germany than in France. We merged the two names in 2017, Oddo and BHF, to ensure that the name reflects the new Franco-German identity of the group.
We have invested significantly in a third market, Switzerland, where we already had a bank in Zurich, spun off from BHF-Bank, and where we bought Landolt Bank last year. Within the group, we operate mainly in three business lines: private banking with more than €40bn of assets under management, asset management with more than €60bn, and corporate and investment banking, where we are particularly active in European equities.
We are a group with more than 2,500 employees, who hold more than 25% of the capital. By being shareholders, the employees are therefore partners of the firm alongside my family, which holds 65% of the capital, along with two other large families, the Bettencourt family and the Lombard family.
What does this mean in figures?
In figures, it represents more than €140bn in assets under management, €780m in net banking income, up 25%, and net income of €158m, which is a more than 100% rise. We have exceeded €1bn in equity. We are a group with more than 2,500 employees, who hold more than 25% of the capital. By being shareholders, the employees are therefore partners of the firm alongside my family, which holds 65% of the capital, along with two other large families, the Bettencourt family and the Lombard family.
You are a banking group with European roots. Do you have any plans for a European company?
We have brought together Oddo and BHF. We manage the French bank and the German bank together, with a single IT platform. Our plan is to create a SE [societas europaea], i.e., a single company, with a single supervisory board and a single management board, which is intended to have a European ambition, anchored on Franco-German roots and on a third Swiss pillar.
What are your activities in Luxembourg?
In Luxembourg, we have about 20 employees and a management company specialising in dedicated funds for German clients. We have Luxembourg Sicavs and unit trusts that we distribute in Luxembourg and throughout Europe. We want to offer Luxembourg private and institutional clients our asset management know-how. In private banking, we have decided to enter into a partnership with Spuerkeess.
We are interested in the idea of recruiting Luxembourg talent to contribute to the European development of our group, and to allow them to integrate and develop within our Franco-German teams.
And what are your plans for Luxembourg?
First of all, our partnership with Spuerkeess is set to grow. We are well aware of the expectations of wealth management clients, and Spuerkeess knows the local fabric well. We bring to Spuerkeess and its clients the expertise of our Frankfurt-based mandate management team, whose performance in recent years has been of high quality. Clients trust us and last year we collected more than €3bn in Germany in wealth management.
We are also particularly attracted to Luxembourg because there are many talented people who speak French, German and English. We are interested in the idea of recruiting Luxembourg talent to contribute to the European development of our group, and to allow them to integrate and develop within our Franco-German teams.
This interview was originally published in French by and translated for Delano