A matriarch of the Rothschild banking dynasty is selling her family’s shares in The Economist, according to a new report.
British-American businesswoman and philanthropist Lynn Forester de Rothschild has put the family’s entire 26.7% stake in the influential magazine up for sale, Axios reported.
The Rothschilds’ shares in The Economist are worth an estimated $537 million, according to the news site.
That would put the high-end valuation of the entire magazine at around $1.1 billion.
The sale process formally launched Monday night in London and is being led by Lazard, the investment bank advising the family on the deal, sources told Axios.
The Rothschilds’ stake in The Economist was pegged at around 26.7%. Exor, the investment firm of Italy’s Agnelli family, holds about 43.4% of the publication, Axios noted.
The Economist Group itself owns about 30% of the magazine.
Forester de Rothschild, who heads the family-owned holding company EL Rothschild LLC, became the most public and active head of her branch of the family following the 2022 death of her husband, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild.
Forester de Rothschild previously planned to offload only part of her family’s holding — roughly 20% — but ultimately decided to cash out entirely.
Her family’s shares include both voting and nonvoting stock.
Under The Economist’s ownership rules, no single shareholder can control more than 20% of the voting rights. The safeguard is meant to preserve the publication’s editorial independence.
Any new buyer will have to live with that cap, which is enforced by a group of independent trustees.
The Rothschilds first bought into The Economist in 2002 through their investment firm.
Over the years, they became major backers of the Economist Educational Foundation, which offers free classroom materials to help students build critical-thinking skills.
A sale would close the book on more than two decades of the family’s involvement with the 182-year-old magazine, long a champion of free markets and liberal democracy.
The offering comes amid heightened global competition for elite English-language news outlets, Axios noted.
In recent years, international buyers — especially in Asia — have snapped up western financial media brands.
Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon bought Fortune magazine for $150 million in 2018, while Japanese media conglomerate Nikkei purchased the Financial Times for $1.3 billion in 2015.
Forbes Media was acquired by Hong Kong-based Integrated Whale Media in 2014.
The Rothschilds’ sale is expected to draw interest from family offices, strategic investors and rich individuals, rather than large corporate media groups, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.
