Editor’s Note
The centuries-old British auction house Bonhams is set to lose its status as the last major privately-held international auction firm, with private equity fund Epiris acquiring it. This marks a significant shift in the art market’s ownership landscape.
A new owner for the last privately-owned British auction house: The Epiris fund is taking over Bonhams. There will also be personnel changes.
London. Rumors have been circulating since 2014 that the London auction house Bonhams, founded in 1793, was up for sale. Bonhams is the only internationally operating auction house still in British private ownership – which is now about to change. At that time, Bonhams negotiated with the Chinese auction house Poly International Auction, but the deal did not materialize.
Since then, Bonhams, which ranks 7th internationally (by turnover) among all auction houses, has been striving to present itself attractively to find another buyer. Expansions into the Asian region are still being developed, in 2015 it held its first pure online auction, and in the same year the house moved into expanded premises in the heart of Mayfair after renovations costing between 30 and 40 million pounds.
After that, efficiency was successfully increased: while profit in 2016 was still 1.6 million pounds, by the end of 2017 the house was able to generate a profit of 4.9 million pounds.
Bonhams pursues a completely different strategy than competitor Phillips in order to operate successfully behind Christie’s and Sotheby’s. While Phillips focuses on 20th and 21st century art and design, Bonhams offers 60 different auction categories – including, besides art, primarily jewelry, wine, and cars. Most recently, the house set a world record in Hong Kong with a 60-year-old whisky for over 800,000 pounds.
The new owner is the private equity fund Epiris II, which is listed in London and acquires medium-sized companies valued at under 500 million pounds with international investors. This year, the group acquired Time Inc. (UK), a media publisher, and The Club Company, which manages golf courses. Owen Wilson, one of the partners at Epiris, describes Bonhams as:
Changes are already underway at the top management level. Bruno Vinciguerra is being appointed as the new Executive Chairman alongside the long-standing chiefs, Chief Executive Matthew Girling and Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Fairhurst. Vinciguerra was COO (Chief Operating Officer) at Sotheby’s for eight years until 2015. At that time, he was partly responsible for the partnership between Sotheby’s and Ebay. Will there be an increased focus on online business in the future?
The competition, which is strong in the auction business, is in any case heavily investing in expanded technologies. Unfortunately, Bonhams is not currently providing more detailed information. Girling is naturally optimistic, stating in the press release:
However, where the focus of Epiris II will lie in the balance between investment and profit generation remains to be seen.