Lazard launches new team and appoints Managing Directors

LONDON, 15 November 2019 – Lazard Ltd (NYSE: LAZ) announced today that it has launched a new team called Lazard Venture and Growth Banking and appointed Garri Jones and Nick James as Managing Directors in its UK Investment Banking business. Garri and Nick will join in January from Numis where they ran a successful ventures practice.

Lazard’s Venture and Growth Banking team will focus on the private growth equity and venture capital markets, connecting growth businesses with its large global investor base. The team will work closely with Lazard’s Capital Markets and sector M&A teams as part of an integrated Investment Banking advisory effort.

The team is in place as a response to and in anticipation of a number of market factors that are driving the demand for and supply of private capital. These include more companies across sectors staying private for longer and a significant rise in larger, later-stage deals that the growth equity market is funding. The investor base for such deals is global, highly fragmented and requires intermediation in order to ensure optimal outcomes for all stakeholders.

The team will number ten people in total with nine in place by the end of January 2020. They are a mix of experienced entrepreneurs, bankers, data scientists and engineers. Today’s announcement follows the appointment of Christopher Britton, who joined as a Director in June, to focus on private capital raising.

William Rucker, Lazard UK Chairman said, ‘’The team will build on Lazard’s established public equity franchise and leverage Lazard’s global network to provide companies with greater access to capital markets and financial advisory advice throughout their life cycle. Garri and Nick will bring a different perspective and set of relationships that will broaden the firm’s access to global capital providers and complement and strengthen our global advisory capability.’’

Lazard’s Venture and Growth Banking team will focus on connecting 100 selected high growth European companies across different sectors and stages of the business life cycle with 400 active global investors. The team will host a three-day conference in April 2020 that showcases this focus, bringing leading companies and global investors together through a series of panel discussions and bespoke investor and company meetings.