Lazard Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Ken Jacobs plans to step down from the top job as the investment bank retrenches amid a slump in dealmaking and a plunge in the company’s stock price.
(Bloomberg) — Lazard Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Ken Jacobs plans to step down from the top job as the investment bank retrenches amid a slump in dealmaking and a plunge in the company’s stock price.
Jacobs, 64, will remain with the firm and be succeeded as CEO by Peter Orszag, a person familiar with the matter said. The transition hasn’t been finalized and could still change, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. A representative for Lazard declined to comment. Richard Parsons, the bank’s lead director, said in a statement that Lazard has had a succession plan in place for a while and that the plan “is on track.”
Lazard posted a surprise loss for the first quarter and in April announced plans to reduce its workforce by 10% this year, predicting a slowdown in the mergers & acquisitions advisory business will last through 2023. Investment-banking fees across the five biggest Wall Street banks plummeted 49% last year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
Read more: Lazard to Cut Workforce 10% as CEO Sees Slump Through 2023
“Candidly, things are not feeling as good as they were in December or January,” Jacobs said in an April interview. “It’s time to act. That’s basically it.”
The firm is also planning to close offices in Latin America as part of its cost-cutting, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month. Countries affected are Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Panama, the people said.
The investment bank’s shares have fallen 17% this year, after a plunge of about 21% in 2022. They ended regular New York trading Thursday at $28.72, down from an intraday record of $60 in February 2018.
Orszag, 54, is Lazard’s CEO of financial advisory. He was at the Office of Management and Budget from 2009 to 2010 and director of the Congressional Budget Office from 2007 to 2008, and is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist.
The move by Jacobs, 64, was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Lazard’s first-quarter financial-advisory revenue slumped 29% from a year earlier to $274 million, falling short of the $296 million estimate in a survey of analysts by Bloomberg News. Asset-management revenue of $265 million was down 15%.
The adjusted loss per share was 26 cents, compared with an average estimate of 30 cents of profit per share.
–With assistance from David Scheer.
(Updates with Jacobs remaining at the firm in second paragraph.)
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