The story
Founded by Philip Cazenove.1
Early history and growth
The company has its roots in the early Huguenot financiers who left France for Geneva in 1685 after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which established Catholicism as the state religion of France. Among those were members of the Cazenove family, who later left Geneva for the UK seeking wealth and freedom in the City of London.
In 1819 Philip Cazenove first joined the business of his brother-in-law John Francis Menet (John Menet had married Philip Cazenove's sister Louisa in 1805). Cazenove and Menet become partners, and in 1823 the firm of Cazenove started. After Menet died, Cazenove entered into a partnership with Joseph Laurence and Charles Pearce.
In 1854 Cazenove branched out on his own, and later he formed a new partnership with his son and nephew.
The company played a major part as advisor in most of Margaret Thatcher's UK Government's privatisation issues in the 1980s.
Change of corporate structure
In 2000, Cazenove & Co announced its intention to dissolve the partnership, incorporate, and then float on the London Stock Exchange. At this stage the firm had 80 partners, with unlimited liability, and 1170 employees. The company duly incorporated and raised funds from institutional investors, However the company's ambition to list publicly was hampered by poor market conditions in the UK in 2001 and 2002.
Merger with JPMorgan Chase
In November 2004, Cazenove and JPMorgan Chase announced an agreement that JPMorgan would buy a 50% stake in Cazenove and merge their UK investment banking operations, with an option to buy the remaining 50% stake within five years.
In 2009, JPMorgan completed the purchase for £1 billion; the combined business continued to be called J.P. Morgan Cazenove. JP Morgan Cazenove completed the sale of its Asian business, Cazenove Asia, to a subsidiary of Standard Chartered, Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong that year.
From Wikipedia’s article on Cazenove (stock broker), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4