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Nathaniel Rothschild has agreed to take a minority stake in Lars Windhorst’s investment firm Tennor, as the two European financiers team up to pursue new business ventures together.
Rothschild was the guest of honour at a party at Tennor’s upscale London offices in Mayfair last night, according to people familiar with the matter, in which it was announced he is planning to become “executive chairman” of Windhorst’s Tennor group and take a minority stake in the investment company.
“I’m going to be devoting all of my time to this effort,” Rothschild told the gathered crowd. “I’ve never seen anyone who works quite as hard as Lars, it’s quite remarkable.”
Windhorst first shot to fame while still a teenager in the 1990s, when then-German chancellor Helmut Kohl hailed him as a business “wunderkind”, but his business career has since been plagued by scandal.
Hard-to-sell bonds and stocks linked to the German financier were at the heart of an illiquid investment scandal at H2O Asset Management, which last year received a record fine from French regulators and whose co-founder Bruno Crastes was struck off from managing funds for five years.
Tennor confirmed the proposed tie-up with Rothschild in a statement to the FT, which states that Rothschild is “in the process of finalising” the deal in the coming weeks.
Windhorst said he was “delighted that Nat is becoming chairman”, while City grandee Martin Gilbert, the chairman of Tennor’s advisory board, described Rothschild as a “brilliant fit for Tennor”.
Windhorst’s Dutch entity Tennor Holding racked up billions of euros in debts to H2O and other creditors, several of which have pursued him through the courts in a bid to reclaim the money.
In recent years, the financier has pursued new deals through a Swiss entity called Tennor International.
The link-up with Rothschild represents yet another attempt at a comeback for Windhorst, who has endured personal and corporate bankruptcies, criminal and civil proceedings against him, and even survived a plane crash that claimed the life of one of the pilots.
During last night’s speech, Rothschild compared Windhorst to his great-grandfather Sir James Dunn “who was a buccaneering Canadian industrialist who went bust three times” but went on to become “the richest and most successful industrialist that Canada ever produced”.
Rothschild is a scion of the famous European financial dynasty. In the 2010s, the 53-year-old British financier was involved in two scandals surrounding soured emerging markets commodities ventures Genel and Bumi.
Since 2015, Rothschild has served as executive chairman of Aim-listed manufacturing business Volex, whose shares are up over 300 per cent over the past five years.
In Tennor’s statement, Rothschild said Volex, where he is also the largest shareholder, would remain his “primary focus”.
Rothschild added: “Like many great entrepreneurs, Lars has had his ups and downs but his enthusiasm and energy remain strong. His motto might be: “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”.
Windhorst has in recent years pitched investors on commodities and natural resources ventures in Africa, according to several people in the financier’s circle. Some of these proposed schemes are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is at the centre of a scramble for critical minerals and where the financier has touted his close ties to government officials.
During cross-examination in London’s high court last year, Windhorst was also asked about transactions with Nigerian oil magnate Segun Adebutu, which the German financier said centred on “mining and minerals” operations in the West African country.