Louis Reijtenbagh (born July 18, 1946) is a Dutch businessman and investor, as well as a retired

general practitioner A general practitioner (GP) is a doctor who is a Consultant (medicine), consultant in general practice. GPs have distinct expertise and experience in providing whole person medical care, whilst managing the complexity, uncertainty and risk ass ...

. He is the founder and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of ''The Plaza Group'' (“Plaza”), a

family office A family office is a privately held company that handles investment management and wealth management for a wealthy family, generally one with at least $50–100 million in investable assets, with the goal being to effectively grow and transfer ...

exclusively formed to manage the capital of its founder and his direct family members.

Early life and career

Reijtenbagh was born in

Den Ham Den Ham ɛn ɦɑmis a village in the Netherlands, Dutch province of Overijssel. It is located in the municipality of Twenterand, about 15 km northwest of Almelo. Den Ham was a separate municipality until 2001, when it became a part of V ...

Overijssel Overijssel (; ; ; ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name comes from the perspective of the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht, Episcopal principality of Utrecht ...

. He graduated from the

Radboud University Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, , formerly ) is a public research university located in Nijmegen, Netherlands. RU has seven faculties and more than 24,000 students. Established in 1923, Radboud University has consistently been included in ...

in Nijmegen, formerly Catholic University Nijmegen (the Netherlands), in 1975 with a degree in general medicine. Reijtenbagh was awarded a scholarship under the

Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

to study cardiology at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. During his studies Reijtenbagh voluntarily worked for the Acworth Leprosy Hospital in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. Reijtenbagh ran a general care practice in

Almelo Almelo () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands. The main population centres in the town are Aadorp, Almelo, Mariaparochie, and Bornerbroek. Almelo has about 72,000 inhabitants in the middle o ...

, Overijssel, from 1975 until 1990. Reijtenbagh has always had an interest in the financial markets. From his days as a student he has been actively involved and his investments have primarily focused on global macro and discretionary long/short investing. He founded Plaza in 1985 in the Netherlands to invest across various asset classes. Reijtenbagh manages all activities since 1995 from Plaza's headquarters in Monaco. His name was included on a proxy card for ''Big Sky Energy'' which had interests on the eastern shore of the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

through a stake held in KoZhan, which is a petroleum firm developing the Morskoye, Karatal, Dauletally fields in the

Atyrau Region Atyrau Region (; ) formerly known as Guryev Region () until 1991, is one of the regions of Kazakhstan, in the western part of the country around the northeast of the Caspian Sea. Its capital is the city of Atyrau, with a population of 355,117; t ...

, by the subsidiary ''Big Sky Energy Kazakhstan'' until Kazakhstan government ruled against Big Sky Energy and for the interests of

Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation PLC (ENRC) was a public, Kazakhstan/Central African-focused, multinational leading diversified natural resources company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It had activities in integrated mining, proc ...

(ENRC), which has been restructured within the Kazakh Trio Alexander Mashkevich,

Patokh Chodiev Patokh Chodiev (; ''Fáttoh Kayúmovich Shódiev''; born 15 April 1953) is a Belgian-Uzbek oligarch and philanthropist. He enriched himself in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, as he, Alexander Mashkevich and Alijan Ibragimov, ...

and

Alijan Ibragimov Alijan Rahmanuly Ibragimov (, also known as Alidjan or Alidzhon Ibragimov; 5 June 1953 – 3 February 2021) was a Kazakh oligarch of the Uyghur descent. He was born in Fergana, Uzbek SSR, and was a member of a well-known circle of oligarchs in K ...

controlled

Eurasian Resources Group Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) S.à r.l. is a large mining and raw materials supplier with operations in Kazakhstan, Brazil and Central Africa. In its current form, the company began in December 2013 after it acquired the Eurasian Natural Resour ...

(ERG) which controlled KoZhan from 2010 to 2015 but is now controlled by the Chen Huanlong associated Chinese firm '' Geo-Jade Petroleum Corporation''.

Personal life

Reijtenbagh moved from the Netherlands to Monaco in 1995. He is married and has two sons.

Art Collector

Reijtenbagh is an avid art collector whose collection includes and has included works by

Rembrandt van Rijn Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the h ...

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

Kees van Dongen Cornelis Theodorus Maria "Kees" van Dongen (26 January 1877 – 28 May 1968) was a Dutch-French painter who was one of the leading Fauves. Van Dongen's early work was influenced by the Hague School and symbolism and it evolved gradually into a ...

Giorgio de Chirico Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico ( ; ; 10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the art movement, which profoundly influenced the surrealists. His ...

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. Degas is e ...

and

Pierre Bonnard Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist gr ...

, among others. In September 2008, Reijtenbagh sold a famous work of art - Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde’s “The bend in the Herengracht” - to the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the S ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

for an undisclosed sum. The work has been displayed in a loan exhibition at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

File:Rembrandt Self-portrait 1632.jpg, Rembrandt in Reijtenbagh's collection File:Gerrit Adriaensz. Berckheyde - Gezicht op de Herengracht in Amsterdam, vanaf de Vijzelstraat - Google Art Project.jpg, Berckheyde formerly in Reijtenbagh's collection

Controversy

In March 2009,

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG (, ) was a global Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. According to UBS, eventually Credit Suisse was to be fully integrated into UBS. While the integration ...

’s Strategic Partners investment advisory group sued Reijtenbagh for breach of a credit agreement, alleging amongst others fraudulent misrepresentation and improper transfer of assets by Reijtenbagh and others. Reijtenbagh and Credit Suisse Strategic Partners settled the matter two months later in May 2009. In April 2009,

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational financial services, finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is List of largest banks in the United States, the largest ba ...

sued Reijtenbagh alleging Reijtenbagh defaulted on his obligations under a credit agreement as a result of the lawsuit filed by Credit Suisse Strategic Partners. The litigation was based on a

material adverse change In the fields of mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance, a material adverse change (abbreviated MAC), material adverse event (MAE), or material adverse effect (also MAE) is a change in circumstances that significantly reduces the value of a ...

(MAC) in circumstances. Reijtenbagh reached a settlement with JP Morgan Chase in September 2009.Michael West
Dutchman set for record profit from a legal action

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

, 5 November 2012. In October 2018, the Court of

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

approved a settlement between Reijtenbagh and the Public Prosecutor's Office of Antwerp (Belgium). The settlement is a legislated arrangement that provides a final and complete resolution of the dispute that concerned domicile-related tax and ancillary issues which allegedly occurred over a decade ago. The settlement did not constitute any conviction, nor any finding or admission of guilt, wrongdoing or misconduct whatsoever. Under the approved settlement, the Public Prosecutor's Office has discontinued the entire prosecution and dismissed all charges with prejudice. Accordingly, Reijtenbagh has been cleared of all charges and allegations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reijtenbagh, Louis 1946 births Living people Dutch businesspeople Dutch art collectors Radboud University Nijmegen alumni Dutch investors Dutch billionaires People from Twenterand Dutch general practitioners