Expertise, Previous Positions Held and Education

Robert Cohen                            

• 20 years professional experience in French and French speaking asset management markets managing institutional investor and fund distributor relationships; 19 years experience with Anglo-Saxon groups; successfully established 3 businesses in the areas of asset management, structured products and new equity and bond issuance; restructured and turned around a major asset management company;

• MBA Graduate from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) in 1982;

• CEO of DWS Investments (Paris), Deutsche Bank group’s asset management subsidiary in France, between 2003 and 2006;

• Founder and Managing Director of Schroder Investment Management France, a fund and investment services distribution office, between 2000 and 2003;

• Director and Executive Board Member of the investment bank J. Henry Schroder & Co. Ltd (London), between 1997 and 2000. Was responsible for structured investment sales to institutional investors, having established the business in Paris in 1992 and then grown it across Continental Europe.

André Cohen

• 20 years experience in Mergers and Acquisitions. Acted as lead advisor within top tier banks and boutiques (including Indosuez - Fr, Crédit Agricole Group, Ernst & Young Corporate Finance - Fr and Wasserstein & Perella - USA), and has completed over 50 successful transactions. Clients have ranged from mid-sized corporates to multinational blue chip organisations, and spanned a range of sectors including Consumer Goods, Financial Services, General Industry, Hospitality and Health. Transactions have predominantly been European cross border, but also American and Asian, and deal sizes have ranged from €5 million to €2 billion;

• Graduated from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP – French top tier Business School), Diplôme d’Etudes Comptables Supérieures (Academic degree for CPAs in France), and Avocat à la Cour de Paris (Attorney at Law, Paris Courts);

• Head of Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory in France for Barclays Bank (BZW); Partner Ernst & Young Corporate Finance; In charge of Acquisitions at Bass Hotels & Resorts EMEA (UK; now Intercontinental Hotels Group).

Selection of Deals Previously Conducted 

In M&A 
(Bank or house listed in parentheses)

• Sale of Yves Saint Laurent group to Elf-Sanofi (Wasserstein & Perella France, 1993,  €660m, international open bid);
  
  
• Sale of family owned automotive parts company Defontaine to Hoesch of Germany (Indosuez, 1990,  €38m, open bid);
  
  
• Cross shareholdings and commercial JV agreements between Guinness Plc and LVMH (Indosuez, 1988 to 1992, in excess of €1.8 billion);
  
  
• Sale of luxury catering Hediard (Indosuez) and spirits company Berger (Barclays);
  
  
• Acquisition of Pannonia Hotels in Hungary by Accor (Indosuez), and of Forum Hotel in Munich  (InterContinental Hotels Group);
  
  
• Acquisition of insurance brokerage companies by Groupe Verlingue (2005).
  

In Asset Management

• Examples of mandate wins: €600m US equity mandate and €500m global bond mandate for the French retirement reserve (Fonds de Réserve des Retraites) and a €50m mandate for the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique;
  
  
• Distribution: DWS became the second largest fund provider to be distributed by Boursorama (Groupe Société Générale) in 2006;
  
  
• Employee savings cooperation agreement between DWS and AG2R (France’s largest benefits group) and several dozen distribution agreements signed at both Shroeders and DWS;
  
  
• Strutured a capital guaranteed, actively managed third party fund of funds for Boursorama;
  
  
• Structuring, issue arrangement and private placement of numerous structured products indexed against all types of underlying including funds.