Groupe Bruxelles Lambert was founded in 1972, when the Lambert banking family merged their holding companies ?Compagnie Lambert pour l'Industrie et la Finance? and ?Cofinter? with two holding companies belonging to the ?Groupe de Launoit?. The new firm controlled two Belgian banks, the ?Banque Lambert? and the ?Banque de Bruxelles?, which were subsequently merged in 1975 to form the ?Banque Bruxelles Lambert? . Groupe Bruxelles Lambert sold BBL to the ?ING Group? in 1998, which is now known as ?ING Belgium?.
GBL is best known in the United States as one of the namesakes of Drexel Burnham Lambert, the investment bank that pioneered trading in junk bonds. The Lamberts owned a research boutique, William D. Witter , which merged with then-Drexel Burnham in 1976. In return, GBL received a 26% stake in the merged company, and six seats on the board.
Since 2012, GBL divested more and more its stakes in Total and Engie. These two companies in the energy sector that constituted 41.5% of the value of GBL in 2011, only represented 4.2% of the portfolio on 31 March 2017. Simultaneously, GBL expanded into new business segments by acquiring stakes in SGS, Umicore, Adidas, Ontex, Burberry, Parques Reunidos.and Sienna Capital S.a R.l.
