Lazard buys bargain ticket to private-market boom

Lazard

30/04/2026 17:03

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

By Liam  Proud

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Boutique bank Lazard LAZ.N makes its money, in part, from telling others what to buy. It's reassuring then that CEO Peter Orszag seems capable of doing a good deal on his own account. Buying London-based advisory outfit Campbell Lutyens gives $4.5 billion Lazard more exposure to some of the hotter themes in the private-capital world. And the price tag, at $575 million, looks reasonable.

Campbell Lutyens advises private-markets groups on fundraising, arranges after-market deals known as secondaries, and also provides counsel to buyout firms themselves on M&A and stake sales. Key competitors include specialist divisions of Evercore EVR.N, PJT Partners PJT.N, UBS UBSG.S and Jefferies JEF.N. Lazard is already a strong player, having helped private-capital clients raise $90 billion across 2024 and 2025. But Campbell Lutyens gives it a much heftier offering in credit, infrastructure and so-called limited partner-led secondaries. That's when underlying investors, like insurers or pension plans, sell their stakes in funds.

As with investment banking, it's a relationship business. As such, the risk is that key dealmakers leave after the transaction closes, taking their clients with them. Orszag and his counterpart Gordon Bajnai, the Campbell Lutyens CEO who previously served as Hungary's prime minister, have mitigated this danger. Lazard is paying in its own stock, with a chunky deferred element and lock-ups of up to three years on much of the rest. Doing so gives bankers a stake in the firm’s future, and one they can’t easily relinquish.

The valuation looks reasonable, too. Campbell Lutyens's revenue grew about 25% in the financial year to this April, according to a person familiar with the matter, implying a top line of some $243 million. Striking a deal worth 2.4 times that sum compares favorably with the average multiple of 2.9 times trailing revenue at which listed advisory shops PJT, Moelis MC.N, Perella Weinberg PWP.O and Houlihan Lokey HLI.N trade.

The bigger picture is also important. Secondaries investing is one of the hottest areas around right now. The business includes arranging so-called continuation vehicles, which allow buyout barons to hold onto assets for longer, and helping investors reshuffle their holdings. It's booming in part because private equity giants have struggled to exit investments made in the go-go years of low interest rates. This multi-trillion-dollar case of indigestion will not be solved any time soon. Campbell Lutyens will help Lazard get some more fees from soothing the symptoms.

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CONTEXT NEWS

Investment bank Lazard on April 30 said that it had agreed to buy private equity advisory firm Campbell Lutyens for $575 million.

Geographic breakdown of staff in the new combined private-capital shop https://www.reuters.com/graphics/BRV-BRV/lgvdggqyrpo/chart.png

(Editing by Jonathan Guilford; Production by Maya Nandhini)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on PROUD/liam.proud@thomsonreuters.com))