Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on October 8, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
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The Rothschild family plans to sell its entire 26.7% stake in The Economist, potentially valuing the group at £800 million. The sale is led by Lazard and expected to complete this year.
(Reuters) -British philanthropist Lynn Forester de Rothschild is looking to offload her family's entire stake in global media and information company The Economist, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing a source familiar with the transaction.
The Rothschilds hold a stake of 26.7% — which includes about 20% in voting shares — in the company founded in 1843, according to a filing.
The Economist also counts Italy's Agnelli family's financial arm Exor as a major shareholder, which holds a stake of around 43.4% in the company.
The stake sale, at the upper end, could value the entire Economist Group at roughly 800 million pounds ($1.07 billion), the report said, adding that the family's full stake could be valued at up to 400 million pounds.
Rothschild advisers have opened talks with potential buyers in the U.S. and the UK, including family offices and strategic investors, the report said. The process is being led by Lazard, as Bloomberg News had previously reported.
The sellers expect to complete the sale this year, as per Axios.
The Economist and the Rothschild family did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment outside regular business hours.
The last major transaction involving The Economist was in 2015, when Britain's Pearson sold its 50% stake, ending its near-60-year ownership of the magazine.
In its annual earnings release, The Economist reported a 2% jump in revenue to 368.5 million pounds, with around 1.25 million subscribers. The group operates in 14 countries, including the United States, China, India and the United Arab Emirates, according to its website.
($1 = 0.7443 pounds)
(Reporting by Ruchika Khanna and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
Corporate governance is the system by which companies are directed and controlled. It encompasses the rules, practices, and processes that ensure accountability and transparency in a company's operations.
Investment is the act of allocating resources, usually money, in order to generate income or profit. It can involve purchasing assets like stocks, bonds, or real estate.
A financial market is a marketplace where buyers and sellers engage in the trading of assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, and derivatives. It facilitates the flow of capital and liquidity.
A shareholder is an individual or institution that owns shares in a company, giving them a claim on part of the company's assets and earnings. Shareholders can influence company decisions through voting rights.
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