Rothschilds to Rename Bank Holding Company Amid Family Feud

(Bloomberg) -- The company that houses the Rothschild & Cie. investment bank plans to rename itself Rothschild & Co., making the change at a time when use of the storied name is at the center of a dispute between branches of the family.

Paris Orleans, the publicly traded holding company, intends to adopt the new name at the next annual meeting, pending shareholder approval, it said in a statement Wednesday.

Edmond de Rothschild group, the asset management and private banking firm led by Ariane de Rothschild and Benjamin de Rothschild, has criticized the use of the family name by entities operating under Benjamin’s cousin David de Rothschild, who oversees Paris Orleans.

David, 72, told Le Figaro that he received a court summons last week based on the fact that Ariane and Benjamin “think that we’re making an undue use of the Rothschild name,” which he disputed.

Spokesmen for Paris Orleans and Edmond de Rothschild group declined to comment.

Paris Orleans is the holding company for Rothschild businesses that provide merger advice as well as wealth and asset management and merchant banking services. Founded as a French rail company in 1838, it was used by David and Eric de Rothschild to restart the business in 1982 after a Socialist government nationalized the family’s French bank in 1981.

“Changing the listed entity name is the logical and necessary outcome of the group’s transformation,” Eric and David de Rothschild said in the statement from Paris Orleans Wednesday.