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Lord Nathaniel Rothschild has reaffirmed his commitment to his business partnership with Lars Windhorst just days after filing a lawsuit against the controversial German financier.
Rothschild, 53, a scion of one of Europe’s most storied banking dynasties, announced in July 2024 that he would take a minority stake in Windhorst’s investment firm Tennor and become its executive chair.
Less than six months later, Rothschild sued the German financier, filing a lawsuit against Windhorst and his Swiss company Tennor International in London’s high court on Wednesday. A spokesperson attributed the dispute to an alleged default on a personal loan.
Rothschild’s spokesperson told the FT on Friday that he was still committed to the partnership struck with Windhorst, however, and could withdraw the lawsuit.
“Positive discussions with Lars Windhorst around a mutually acceptable outcome continue and Lord Rothschild remains committed to the partnership announced in July 2024,” Rothschild’s spokesperson said. “He hopes to withdraw the claim and draw a line under this matter as soon as possible.”
Windhorst declined to comment.
Windhorst, whose business career has been marked by repeated scandal, has faced several claims from aggrieved creditors in recent years. During a 2023 London high court hearing, he denied under oath that he lived a “billionaire lifestyle” while large unpaid debts remained outstanding.
The entrepreneur, 48, shot to fame in 1990s as a so-called “wunderkind” of German business, earning the admiration of the country’s chancellor Helmut Kohl. By the time he was 34, however, he had weathered the collapse of numerous ventures, personal bankruptcy and a suspended jail sentence for “breach of trust”.
Rothschild unveiled his partnership with Windhorst at a party at the German financier’s Mayfair offices in July.
Rothschild compared Windhorst to his great-grandfather Sir James Dunn, “who was a buccaneering Canadian industrialist who went bust three times” but went on to become “the richest and most successful industrialist that Canada ever produced”.
In an interview with the FT last month, Windhorst said: “I am very pleased, and in fact excited, to have Lord Rothschild with us.”
