Lazard Ltd (Lazard) operates as a financial advisory and asset management company with operations in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. Lazard provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and capital solutions, restructuring and liability management, geopolitics, and other strategic matters, as well as asset management and investment solutions to institutions, corporations, governments, partnerships, family offices, and high net worth individua...
Lazard Ltd (Lazard) operates as a financial advisory and asset management company with operations in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. Lazard provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and capital solutions, restructuring and liability management, geopolitics, and other strategic matters, as well as asset management and investment solutions to institutions, corporations, governments, partnerships, family offices, and high net worth individuals.
Principal Business Lines
The company focuses primarily on two business segments: Financial Advisory and Asset Management.
Financial Advisory segment
This segment advises leaders on their most important financial and strategic matters, serving as a trusted advisor whose mission is to ensure the best result for its clients. The company’s Financial Advisory business offers corporate, partnership, institutional, government, sovereign, and individual clients across the globe a wide array of advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory, capital markets advisory, shareholder advisory, sovereign advisory, geopolitical advisory, restructuring and liability management, capital raising and placement, and other strategic matters.
The company continues to build its Financial Advisory business by fostering long-term relationships with existing and new clients as their independent advisor on strategic transactions and other matters. It seeks to build and sustain long-term relationships with its clients rather than focusing simply on individual transactions, a practice that it believes enhances its access to senior management of major corporations and institutions around the world. The company emphasizes providing clients with senior-level focus during all phases of transaction analysis and execution.
To develop new client relationships and to develop new engagements from historical client relationships, the company maintains an active dialogue with a large number of clients and potential clients, as well as with their financial and legal advisors, on an ongoing basis. It has gained a significant number of new clients through its business development initiatives. In addition, developing internal talent and the lateral recruiting of senior investment banking professionals are also core components of its growth strategy. At the same time, the company loses clients each year as a result of the sale, merger, or restructuring of a client, a change in a client’s senior management, competition from other investment banks, and other causes.
The company maintains a major local presence in the United States (the U.S.), the United Kingdom (the U.K.), and France, with offices across the world as a part of its global network.
Services Offered
The company advises clients on a wide range of strategic and financial issues. When it advises clients on the potential acquisition of another company, business, or certain assets, its services include evaluating potential acquisition targets, providing valuation analyses, evaluating and proposing financial and structural alternatives, rendering advice on the geopolitical and regulatory landscape as it may affect a transaction, and, if appropriate, delivering fairness opinions.
When the company advises clients that are contemplating the sale of businesses, assets, or an entire company, its services include advising on the sale process, providing valuation analyses, assisting in preparing an information memorandum or other appropriate sale materials, and rendering, if appropriate, fairness opinions. The company also identifies and contacts selected qualified potential acquirers and assists in negotiating and closing the proposed sale. As appropriate, it also advises its clients regarding potential financial and strategic alternatives to a sale, including recapitalizations, spin-offs, carve-outs, and split-offs. The company frequently provides advice with respect to the structure, timing, and pricing of these alternatives.
With respect to companies in financial distress, the company provides services to the company, creditors, or other interested parties, which may include reviewing and analyzing the business, operations, properties, financial condition, and prospects of the company, evaluating debt capacity, assisting in the determination of an appropriate capital structure, assisting in structuring and effecting the financial aspects of amendments to debt documents or exchange offers or refinancings, evaluating financial and strategic alternatives, and assisting and participating in negotiations with affected entities or groups. In such cases, the company may assist in certain aspects of the implementation of such a plan, including advising and assisting in structuring and effecting the financial aspects of a sale or recapitalization, structuring new securities, other consideration, or other inducements to be offered or issued, as well as assisting and participating in negotiations with affected entities or groups. In addition, the company provides a holistic view on liability management, and it specializes in advising clients, both companies and creditors, on out-of-court restructurings, recapitalizations, and tender and exchange offers, among other solutions.
When the company assists clients in connection with shareholder advisory and corporate preparedness matters, its services may include reviewing and analyzing the business, operations, properties, financial condition, and prospects of the company, providing insights on the company’s shareholders, and advising on defense measures and strategic alternatives potentially available to the company. Its advice may relate to a broad range of matters, including M&A and capital markets transactions and activist situations.
When the company assists clients in connection with their capital structure, it typically reviews and analyzes structural alternatives, assists in long-term capital planning, and advises and assists with respect to rating agency discussions and relationships, among other things.
When the company assists clients in raising private or public market financing or capital, its services may include assisting clients in connection with securing, refinancing, or restructuring bank loans or other debt, securing venture capital and other financial investor funding, originating and executing, or participating in, public underwritings and private placements of securities, and originating and executing private placements of partnership and similar interests in alternative investment funds, such as leveraged buyout, mezzanine, or real estate-focused funds and single or multi-asset continuation funds.
The company is at the forefront of providing independent advice to governments and governmental agencies in connection with economic developments. Lazard’s Sovereign Advisory Group has advised a number of countries and institutions with respect to sovereign debt and other financial matters.
Staffing
The company staffs each of its assignments with a team of quality professionals who have appropriate product, industry, and geographic expertise. It prides itself on, and it believes it differentiates itself from its competitors by, being able to offer a high level of attention from senior personnel to its clients and organizing itself in such a way that managing directors who are responsible for securing and maintaining client relationships also actively participate in providing related advice and services. Its managing directors have significant experience, and many of them are able to use this experience to advise on M&A, financings, restructurings, capital structure, shareholder advisory, and other transactions or financial matters, depending on its clients’ needs. Many of the company’s managing directors and senior employees come from senior leadership positions in corporations, government, law, and strategic consulting, which it believes enhances its ability to offer sophisticated advice and customized solutions to its clients. As of December 31, 2024, the company’s Financial Advisory segment had 194 managing directors and 1,363 other professionals and support staff.
Industries Served and Practice Areas
The company seeks to offer its services across most major industry groups, including, in many cases, sub-industry specialties. Managing directors and professionals in its M&A practice are organized to provide advice in various major industry practice areas, such as consumer and retail; financial institutions; financial sponsors; health care and life sciences; industrials; media, entertainment, and sports; power, energy, and infrastructure; real estate; technology; and telecom and digital infrastructure.
These groups are managed locally in each relevant geographic region and are coordinated globally, which allows the company to bring local industry-specific knowledge to bear on behalf of its clients on a global basis. It believes that this enhances the scope and the quality of the advice that it can offer, which improves its ability to market its capabilities to clients.
In addition to its M&A and Restructuring and Liability Management practices, the company also maintains specialties in the following distinct practice areas within its Financial Advisory business: government and sovereign advisory; public and private debt and structured equity transactions, such as refinancing, acquisition financing, capital structure optimization, covenant relief and liability management, dividend recapitalization, rescue financing, liquidity enhancement, growth capital, infrastructure financing, project financing, and debtor-in-possession financings; shareholder and corporate preparedness advisory; fundraising and arranging liquidity for third-party alternative investment funds; corporate finance and other services, including private placements, underwritten offerings related to its Financial Advisory business, and transactions involving the exchange or issuance of securities; and geopolitical advisory.
The company endeavors to coordinate the activities of the professionals in these areas with its M&A industry specialists in order to offer clients customized teams of cross-functional expertise spanning both industry and practice area expertise.
Strategy
The company’s focus in its Financial Advisory business is on investing in its intellectual capital through hiring and development of senior professionals who it believes have strong client relationships and industry expertise; increasing its client engagement activities to further enhance its long-term relationships, and increasing its marketing efforts to develop new client relationships; increasing its connectivity to private capital; expanding the breadth and depth of its industry expertise and selectively adding or reinforcing practice areas, such as its Capital Markets Advisory, Shareholder Advisory, Sovereign Advisory, and Geopolitical Advisory groups; coordinating its industry specialty activities on a global basis and increasing the integration of its industry experts in M&A with its other professionals; selectively bolstering its existing presence in certain local markets; broadening its geographic presence by adding new offices where opportunities arise; investing in its technology infrastructure, AI, and data science capabilities to enhance its business; and deploying its intellectual capital, strong client relationships, and other assets to generate new revenue streams.
Going forward, the company’s strategic emphasis in its Financial Advisory business is to focus on investing in high-caliber senior hires, alongside the continued development and retention of its talent to grow its business and drive its productivity. It expects to make hires that will strengthen its presence across sectors and geographies, expanding its coverage efforts and gaining access to new markets. The company expects the number of its managing directors to increase in the future as it grows revenues. It routinely reassesses its strategic position and makes adjustments accordingly to further enhance its competitive position.
Asset Management segment
This segment offers a broad range of global investment solutions and investment and wealth management services in equity and fixed income strategies, asset allocation strategies, alternative investments, and private equity funds to corporations, public funds, sovereign entities, endowments and foundations, labor funds, financial intermediaries, and private wealth clients. The company’s goal in its Asset Management business is to produce superior risk-adjusted investment returns and provide customized investment solutions for its clients through the active management of their assets. Its investment teams construct and manage portfolios using various techniques and investment philosophies, including traditional fundamental research and analysis and quantitative tools.
The company’s top ten clients accounted for 32% of its total assets under management (AUM) as of December 31, 2024, with no client individually contributing more than 10% of its Asset Management segment net revenue. Approximately 82% of its AUM as of December 31, 2024, was managed on behalf of institutional and intermediary clients, including corporations, labor unions, pension funds, insurance companies, and banks, and through sub-advisory relationships, mutual fund sponsors, broker-dealers, and registered advisors. Approximately 18% of its AUM was managed on behalf of individual client relationships, which are principally with family offices and high-net-worth individuals.
The company’s Asset Management business maintains offices in New York, Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dubai, Dublin, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Lyon, Madrid, Milan, Montreal, Nantes, Paris, Riyadh, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna, and Zurich. These operations, with 124 managing directors and 1,117 other professionals and support staff as of December 31, 2024, provide its Asset Management business with both a global presence and a local identity.
Primary distinguishing features of these operations include: a global footprint with global research, global mandates, and global clients; a broad-based team of investment professionals, including focused, in-house investment analysts across all products and platforms, many of whom have substantial industry or sector-specific expertise; and world-wide brand recognition and multi-channel distribution capabilities.
Investment Philosophy, Process, and Research
The company’s investment philosophy is generally based upon a fundamental security selection approach to investing. Across many of its products, it applies three key principles to investment portfolios: select securities, not markets; evaluate a company’s financial position, outlook, opportunities, and risks, together with its valuation; and manage risk.
In searching for investment opportunities, many of the company’s investment professionals follow an investment process that incorporates several interconnected components that may include: fundamental analysis; quantitative analysis; accounting analysis; security selection and portfolio construction; risk management; • environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors; and client-specific guidelines.
In its Asset Management business, the company conducts investment research on a global basis to develop market, industry, and company-specific insights and evaluate investment opportunities. Many of its global equity analysts, located in its worldwide offices, are organized around global industry sectors.
Investment Strategies
The company’s Asset Management business provides equity, fixed income, cash management, and alternative investment strategies to its clients, paying close attention to its clients’ varying and expanding investment needs. It offers the following product platform of investment strategies:
The company provides other asset management services to its clients, including asset allocation and other investment advisory services, as well as locally customized investment solutions. In many cases, it also offers both diversified and more concentrated versions of its products. These products are generally offered on a separate account basis, as well as through pooled vehicles.
Distribution
The company distributes its products through a broad array of marketing channels on a global basis. Marketing, sales, and client service efforts are organized through a global market delivery and service network, with distribution professionals located in cities including New York, Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dubai, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Lyon, Madrid, Milan, Montreal, Nantes, Paris, Riyadh, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna, and Zurich. It has developed a well-established presence in the institutional asset management arena, managing assets for corporations, labor unions, sovereign wealth funds, and public pension funds around the world. In addition, it manages assets for insurance companies, savings and trust banks, endowments, foundations, and charities. The company is a leading firm in managing mutual funds, sub-advisory funds, and separately managed accounts for many of the world’s largest broker-dealers, insurance companies, registered advisors, and other financial intermediaries.
Strategy
The company’s strategic plan in its Asset Management business is to focus on delivering superior investment performance and client service. Investments and organizational changes made in the business, work done to scale and position its specialty products, and new vectors of growth such as wealth management and active exchange-traded fund (ETFs) offerings position it to drive improved business results. Over the past several years, in an effort to strengthen and expand its Asset Management business, the company has focused on enhancing its investment performance; improved its investment management platform by adding a number of senior investment professionals, including portfolio managers and analysts; continued to strengthen its marketing and consultant relations capabilities, including by optimizing its distribution globally; expanded its product platform, including through sustainable strategies, quantitative equity strategies, thematically oriented strategies, and the upcoming launch of actively managed ETFs; invested in its technology infrastructure and data science capabilities to enhance its business; and continued to expand its geographic reach where opportunities arise.
Regulations
In the U.S., certain of the company’s subsidiaries are subject to regulations promulgated by the SEC and/or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Standards, requirements, and rules implemented throughout the European Union are broadly comparable in scope and purpose to the regulatory capital and customer protection requirements imposed under the SEC and FINRA rules. European Union directives also permit local regulation in each jurisdiction, including those in which the company operates, to be more restrictive than the requirements of such European Union-wide directives. These local requirements can result in certain competitive disadvantages to the company.
The company’s principal U.S. broker-dealer subsidiary, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC (LFNY), through which it conducts all of its U.S. Financial Advisory business, is registered as a broker-dealer with the SEC and FINRA, and as a broker-dealer in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. As such, LFNY is subject to regulations governing most aspects of the securities business, including regulations regarding minimum capital retention requirements, record-keeping and reporting procedures, relationships with clients, experience and training requirements for certain employees, and business procedures with firms that are not members of certain regulatory bodies. Lazard Asset Management Securities LLC (LAM Securities), a subsidiary of Lazard Asset Management LLC (LAM LLC), is registered as a limited-purpose broker-dealer with the SEC and FINRA and in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
The company’s U.S. broker-dealer subsidiaries, including LFNY, are subject to the SEC’s uniform net capital rule, Rule 15c3-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act), and the net capital rules of FINRA. The uniform net capital rule sets the minimum level of net capital a broker-dealer must maintain and also requires that a portion of its assets be relatively liquid. FINRA may prohibit a member firm from expanding its business or paying cash dividends if it would result in net capital falling below FINRA’s requirements. In addition, the company’s broker-dealer subsidiaries are subject to certain notification requirements related to withdrawals of excess net capital. The company’s broker-dealer subsidiaries are also subject to regulations, including the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, which impose obligations regarding the prevention and detection of money-laundering activities, including the establishment of customer due diligence and other compliance policies and procedures. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in monetary, regulatory, and, in certain cases, criminal penalties.
Certain U.K. subsidiaries of the company, including Lazard & Co., Limited (LCL), Lazard Fund Managers Limited, and Lazard Asset Management Limited, which are referred to in this Form 10-K as the U.K. subsidiaries, are authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and are subject to various rules and regulations made by the FCA under the authorities conferred upon it by the Financial Services and Markets Act
History
Lazard Ltd was founded in 1848. The company was incorporated in 1848.
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