Schroders

Schroders plc is a British multinational asset management company headquartered in London, England. Founded in 1804, it employs over 6,000 people worldwide in 38 locations around Europe, America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Schroders bears the name of the Schröder family, a prominent Hanseatic family of Hamburg with branches in other countries. The Schroder family, through trustee companies, individual ownership and charities, control 47.93 per cent of the company's ordinary shares. Schroders' history began in 1804 when Johann Heinrich Schröder (John Henry) became a partner in J.F. Schröder & Co, the London-based firm of his brother, Johann Friedrich (John Frederick), founded in 1800. In 1818 J. Henry Schröder & Co. was established in London. During the American Civil War, Schroders "issued £3m bonds in 1863 for the Confederacy." Key events in the development of the business include the establishment of J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation ('Schrobanco') as a commercial bank in New York in 1923. Further key events included the public offering of the shares in J. Henry Schroder & Co. Ltd on the London Stock Exchange in 1959 and the acquisition of Helbert, Wagg & Co, a leading issuing house, in 1962. In 1986 the company disposed of Schrobanco, its commercial banking arm in New York and acquired 50% of Wertheim & Co., a mid-tier New York based investment bank, whose activities more closely mirrored those of the London business. Schroders played a leading role in the privatisations carried out by the UK Government in the 1980s and was to grow dramatically under Winfried Bischoff. Schroders was worth £30 million when he took over as CEO in 1984; in 2000 the company sold its investment banking division to Citigroup for £1.3 billion. Citigroup's European investment banking arm traded as Schroder Salomon Smith Barney from 2000 to 2003. In 2013, Schroders purchased the capital management arm of Cazenove in a deal worth £424 million.