Billionaire Margarita Dreyfus is offloading nearly half of the eponymous commodities house. The move comes just months after she took a billion-dollar loan from Credit Suisse.
The Zug-based commodities trader is selling a 45 percent stake to a vehicle of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, it said in a statement on Wednesday. It didn't disclose financial details, but said $800 million of the proceeds would go towards «long-term business plan and strategy, including the acceleration of strategic investments».
Louis Dreyfus was valued at $3.8 billion at the end of last year, according to «Bloomberg». Majority owner Margarita Dreyfus, the Russian-born chair of Louis Dreyfus, is the widow of Robert Louis-Dreyfus, a French businessman and commodities tycoon who died in Zurich in 2009.
Rift With Family
Margarita has struggled to pay off family members in order to cement control of the trading house. Now at 96 percent, she has in the past taken hefty dividends out of Dreyfus – at times more than annual profits. The practice has whittled the firm's equity value.
In January, Dreyfus tapped Credit Suisse for a $1.03 billion loan, pledging part of her stake as collateral. On Wednesday, «Bloomberg» reported the Abu Dhabi money will help repay another billion-dollar loan, from the commodities house to its parent company.
Reluctance Vs Opening
Until now, she has been reluctant to open up to outside control. On Wednesday, the company said Abu Dhabi represents part of a «decade-long strategy envisioned by the supervisory board, which started with the consolidation of Louis-Dreyfus Company's parent company’s shareholding.» Credit Suisse advised Dreyfus on the deal.
Dreyfus, one of Switzerland's wealthiest women with an estimated net worth of $3 billion, is also the partner of Philipp Hildebrand. The former Swiss central banker and now top Blackrock executive is being proposed by the Swiss government to replace Angel Gurria next year at the OECD, or Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
