Hambros Bank

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Hambros Bank

logo
legal form Public Limited Company
founding 1839
resolution 1998
Reason for dissolution sale
Seat London
Branch Credit institution

The Hambros Bank was a British bank headquartered in London . The bank was particularly active in the area of international payments and investment banking . It specialized in Anglo-Scandinavian business and for a long time financed the business of the kingdoms in Scandinavia as the sole bank . In 1998 the bank was sold to the French banking group Société Générale . Hambros Bank continues today as part of the private customer business of Société Générale, which, after the merger with the investment bank Kleinwort Benson in November 2016, operates under the name SG Kleinwort Hambros Bank Ltd and as JO Hambro Capital Management , Rupert Hambro & Partners and EC Hambro Rabben and Partners .

history

The bank was founded in 1839 by the Danish businessman and banker Carl Joachim Hambro under the name CJ Hambro & Son in London. During the 1850s, the company has financed several loans of the Government of the United Kingdom and grew as a result, strong. After the First World War the bank in 1921 merged with to Stockholms Enskilda Bank owned British Bank of Northern Commerce and was renamed from now as Hambros Bank . The continued growth of the company made it necessary to build a new head office in Bishopsgate, which was moved into in 1926 and served as the headquarters until 1988. During the Great Depression the business in international payments broke a large extent and the Hambros Bank focused on lending in the UK and to the shops in Scandinavia. During the Second World War , Charles Jocelyn Hambro , a great-grandson of the company's founder, ensured the financing of the Norwegian government in exile . He also chaired the Special Operations Executive . After the Second World War, the Hambros Bank made a name for itself as the "Diamond Bank". Thanks to the financing of the diamond trade , the company rose to become one of the leading banks in Europe by the mid-1960s. In 1967 the business expanded to offshore financial centers and offices in Jersey and Guernsey were opened to secure tax advantages for customers. In the 1970s, the bank expanded its business to include asset management and insurance. With a branch in Gibraltar , which opened in 1981, the bank completed its expansion in the offshore sector.

Crises and dissolution

The bank was hit hard by the crisis in the shipping industry in the 1970s. Because of the close business relationship with the shipowner Hilmar Reksten , the company had to deal with the shipowner's insolvency administrators in legal proceedings for more than two decades . In 1986 the Hambro family foundation, which was the majority owner of the bank, was dissolved. While some of the family members continued to work for and with the bank, the other part turned to other business. The influence of the family within the banking group decreased significantly. At the end of the 1990s, the bank had a total of 1,400 employees, 900 of whom were employed in the head office in London. In February 1998 the board recommended the sale of the company to the French banking group Société Générale. The shareholders approved the sale for £ 300 million. The private equity sector as well as the investment business were excluded from this and were later sold to the South African Investec Bank .

Spin-offs

With the sale of the company, several spin-offs were formed . The best known of the new companies is Getty Images , whose founders Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein previously worked at Hambros. Also Petropavlovsk PLC , a publicly traded company in the field of gold mining dates back to the Hambros Financial Group.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andrew St George: Hambro, Baron Carl Joachim (1807-1877). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
  2. ↑ BILLION Foot: Hambro, Sir Charles Jocelyn (1897-1963). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of January 2008
  3. ↑ Peter Rodgers: Hambros settles longcase. In: The Independent . July 28, 1993, accessed June 7, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Andrew St George: Obituary: Jocelyn Hambro. In: The Independent . June 24, 1994, accessed June 7, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Lea Paterson: End of an era for merchant banking as Hambros arm sold off for pounds 300m. In: The Independent . December 20, 1997, accessed June 7, 2015 .
  6. ^ Investec of South Africa Plans to Buy Hambros. In: The New York Times . May 1, 1998, accessed June 7, 2015 .