Fiscal year 2005 Lazard has posted income from 1

You should never bet against Bruce. "When many investors complained the price too high stock of Lazard implementation may 5, 2005, it was some recall that Bruce Wasserstein, the pattern of the Bank, was rarely mistaken in his long and successful career on Wall Street. But the bar seemed placed very high, to the extent it was transforming forced March the prestigious but byzantine private house in a business bank listed on the upright profitability. A year later, the new strong man of Lazard appears to have won his bet. If Lazard has lost nearly 20 percent on Wall Street in the days and weeks following its first rating, it is is well overtaken since. His performance up to 70 on the first anniversary of its rating.

It is in the fall that the reversal took place, with the publication of the third quarter performance. A trend confirmed by the quality of the annual results. Fiscal year 2005, Lazard has posted income from 1.36 billion, an increase of 22. The trades of mergers and acquisitions jumped 40 to 675 million, all of the activities of Council, with the division restructuring, weighing of $ 865 million, an increase of 32. The management of assets, the other leg of the Bank, saw its revenues forward 12 to 466 million. Thus Lazard, which reached one of the key objectives announced in May 2005 in the reduction of the remuneration of its bankers to revenues, could double its profit to 172 million.

The M & A boom

Of course, the Bank has not progressed dramatically in rankings of mergers and acquisitions advice, but she was able to take advantage of the M & A boom, validating the crossing "box investment" presented to investors by Bruce Wasserstein one year ago: "Lazard is the only"pure player"listed at the beginning of the bull cycle of the M & A ahead even better than the previous.". The year 2005 was the most active since 2000 in mergers and acquisitions with a volume of 2.700 billion of announced transactions, participating Lazard including to very large deals, such as the acquisition of UFJ to the Japan by Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group to 41 billion dollars, and the merger of Duke and Cinergy energy in the United States, for 14 billion.

The optimists may continue to be right in the coming months, even if course folds since a few days with the approach of the results of the first quarter of 2006 next week: many analysts are convinced that the wave of mergers and acquisitions which seized market recently is not ready to settle. For Citigroup analyst Prashant Bhatia "we are at the beginning of the cycle of rebound of the mergers & acquisitions (...): operations total is still low relative to GDP and of market capitalization, and in addition, CEOs are confident and their business balance sheets are strong", he explains. Same observation on the part of the analyst for Merrill Lynch in a report released yesterday.

To continue to entice investors, Lazard must however continue its walk in front of the two sides of the Atlantic. US side, it seems that the support provided by Bruce Wasserstein to financier Carl Icahn in his attempt to take control, ultimately failed, the Board of Directors of the Time Warner media group, has not left traces.

Retain its talent

Side, will need to prove in the long term that some departures in the rating, including Gerardo Braggiotti, did not affect the quality of the franchise. Longer term, the capacity of the Bank to keep its talent that approaches the end of the three years during which the partners are committed to retain their titles may become strategic. In the meantime, new quarters of progression of results will be essential.