This will effectively leave Robert Brooks running an enlarged company – to be called simply Bonhams – encompassing the bulk of Phillips’ UK operation, with 700 staff and an annual turnover estimated at £150m.
As the Gazette went to press, news came through that the deal had been agreed, subject to permission from the EU. The terms include a 50.1 per cent stake in the new company for Bonhams & Brooks and their Dutch financial backer Evert Louwman, with the remaining 49.9 stake to be held by LVMH, the luxury goods group headed by French entrepreneur and collector Bernard Arnault, who bought Phillips in 1999.
“By combining two such well-established auction houses, we have created one which, I believe, will provide a very credible alternative to sellers throughout a wide range of sectors,” said Robert Brooks, the new company’s chairman.
The enlarged operation would be in a better position to offer competition to Christie’s and Sotheby’s as Robert Brooks sets his sights on the middle market, especially as Phillips would bring with it a slimmer and fitter network of regional salerooms and offices than when the 3i venture capital-backed management took over in the late 1990s.
But staff fear the merger could allow the company to shed personnel where jobs are duplicated. Some freehold assets could also be realised.
For Phillips, the deal is expected to strengthen their middle market business without the trouble of having to run it themselves. In addition it would free Simon de Pury, the world-renowned Geneva-based art agent, who took over the running of Phillips with his partner Daniella Luxembourg last December when the two companies merged, to concentrate the firm’s efforts at the top end in jewellery, Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art.
Mr de Pury has made no secret of his desire to do this and is reported to have little time for what he sees as the costly, comparitively unprofitable and administratively cumbersome middle-market operation.
He is expected to keep his Geneva base and run it in conjunction with Phillips’ new headquarters in New York as well as with the firm’s newly acquired London base at 48 Grosvenor Street, which already houses the jewellery department.
It is not clear how Phillips’ Paris operation, which now includes the country’s leading auctioneers, Etude Tajan, will fit into the new scheme.
Bonhams and Phillips merge
BONHAMS & BROOKS confirmed on Friday evening that they are to merge with Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg, ending a week of speculation that this move was imminent.
