Lazard
During the past couple of years, corporates have drawn on the specialist restructuring skills of financial institutions more than ever before. The judges recognised that Lazard has worked on perhaps more high-profile deals than any other player. To name but a few, Lazard has been instrumental in Marconi’s debt for equity swap, UPC’s restructuring, advising Swissair Finance (USA) on the sale of Gategourmet and the restructuring of its debt, and a mandate acting for the Versatel bondholders. In the US, its advisory clients include Worldcom, AES, Adelphia, Owens Corning and the Conseco bondholder committee.
The Marconi deal took more than a year to negotiate and saw the Ł4bn ($6.3bn) of debt swapped for cash, loans and shares in a new company. Creditors groups overwhelmingly backed the proposals.
“Both in Europe and the US, we have seen strong growth in our restructuring advisory business, partly driven by market conditions but, we believe, also reflecting the fact that more and more people – company boards and their legal advisers in particular – recognise the value of the independent, objective and specialist advice that advisory-focused firms such as Lazard can provide, avoiding the conflicts of interest that can often lead to poor advice, erosion of value and, in the extreme, catastrophic failure,” says Richard Stables, European head of restructuring.
