Defoe Fournier & Cie.

Initial years and through modern finance

Founded as Defoe Fournier & Cie. in 1824 in Paris by Anatole Defoe and Mathis Fournier, the firm became a leading gold bullion trading house, establishing itself as a gold custodian and transfer agent. Many French and Belgian colonizers appointed it to manage their wealth. When Fournier co-founded the company, his partner, Anatole Defoe, had been in banking for 20+ years. Fournier willingness to travel any distance for clients made him a reputable banker in Paris.

1970s to 1990s

In the 1970s, it expanded its merchant banking capabilities and when it was a firm with very tight lips to the very wealthy European establishment, with just 70 employees, working under the governance of 30 or so partners. Dozens of subsidiaries and business units reported to the firm and its partners. With over $5 billion in capital, the firm was considered to be very solid. It never solicited business, and its partners, mostly hailing from European wealthy dynasties, were the discreet face of the firm, which had no obvious presence and its single office had no name plate.

2000s to 2016

Committed to focus on its core business, Defoe Fournier & Cie. grew to become a global assets investment and merchant banking firm.

Starting in 2002, the group initiated its strategy to develop small and mid-cap merchant banking business to supplement its blue-chip corporate focus in Europe. Starting in the U.S., it established a joint venture with CS Opportunity Group, a boutique investment bank focused on real estate intensive industry sectors.

In 2005, the group attempted to acquire the Grubb & Ellis company, the 4th world largest integrated commercial real estate services company with over 6,000 employees working globally through 150 offices. The purpose of acquiring Grubb & Ellis for over $110 million was to establish, in one big step, a global merchant banking group focused on small and medium size corporate customers, the core business of Grubb & Ellis. The Board of Grubb & Ellis refused the Defoe Fournier's all-cash offer and a few months later was still forced to sell the company, via an ill-timed merger, to NNN Realty Advisers Inc.

In 2007, the number of partners was reduced dramatically, from an estimated 35 to fewer than 15. The bulk of partners' capital was reduced due to this.

In 2009, Hill van Breen & Co., a project and industrial metals trade finance house, merged into Defoe Fournier & Cie. with two of its partners becoming partners within the merchant banking group and leading its project finance and commodity trade desk. During the 2010–12 period several business units of other financial houses were taken over and combined into firm operations.

In 2010, Defoe Fournier & Cie. business lines were restructured as it was clear that there were two groups of partners in the firm with differing strategic views. There were the traditionalists who saw little need for change of the firm's historical business or further expansions into new lines of business. Then there was the group of partners that was expanding the firm's small and mid-size company-oriented business. As a result, the firm's emerging company merchant banking and project and commodity finance activities were spun off as Defoe Redmount which was created as a separate company with head offices in New York.