Sovereign Advisory

Lazard is the preeminent financial advisor to governments and public sector entities across the world. We provide clients with solutions to the financial issues that arise throughout the credit cycle.

Our team is a longstanding and influential group with a wealth of experience, including former treasury officials, central bankers, IMF officials, macroeconomists, capital market and structured finance specialists.

We have particular strength as a financial advisor to governments that need to engage with creditors: Lazard has been a government advisor on nearly 80% of the sovereign debt restructurings of the past two decades.

We advise public sector entities selling or monetizing assets in the context of balance sheet optimization strategies, ranging from conventional privatizations to more structured transactions.

We advise public sector entities seeking to raise debt with the objective of minimizing costs. This often takes the form of innovative structured transactions, asset-backed or asset-based, for countries with large infrastructure projects.

We advise governments and government-related entities on liability management transactions and debt restructuring. This consists of supporting governments in their interactions with the IMF, bilateral lenders and commercial lenders.

We advise our clients on comprehensive debt strategies that include macro-fiscal advisory, credit rating advisory, market communication advisory and investor diversification.

Governments occasionally face the risk that uncontrolled financial dynamics affecting state-owned enterprises or systemically important banks may contaminate governmental finances. We advise them on how to minimize such risk.

Sovereign Advisory

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