After a presence of over four centuries in the Swiss Confederation, some members of the Hottinguer family elected to move to France in 1786 where they set up a merchant banking house with a view to finance the then burgeoning and expanding flows of shipping trade in manufactured goods, raw materials and agricultural products. Jean-Conrad Hottinguer, the father of this Paris-based banking house, was subsequently instrumental in the creation of the Banque de France in which his family subscribed to and held founder’s shares ; in 1810, Jean-Conrad Hottinguer was made a baron of the French Empire.
In the wake of this remarkable entry into merchant banking , the succeeding Hottinguer bankers all played a major part in the formation of landmark stock-holding companies across a wide spectrum of activities, like water & energy utilities (Compagnie Générale des Eaux), modern banks and savings & loans (Caisse d’Epargne de Paris), railroads (PLM Network). The merchant banking house was particularly active in the issuance and distribution of the common shares of these major corporations to the investing public on one hand, and in the ongoing financing of industrial ventures on the other hand.
In the course of the twentieth century, the Hottinguer banking house diversified its financial activities into the state-of-the-art French insurance industry, thus taking part to the major consolidation move that resulted in the creation of the leading AXA GROUP, and it also led international ventures like branching out back in Switzerland and also in the United States with expert offerings in financial advisory, real estate, private wealth & investment management. In the wake of a family reorganization, the entrepreneurial driver of Philippe Hottinguer was pursued by the creation in 2003 of the Philippe Hottinguer Group.
