Lazard - Middle Market Advisory
Hi All,
First time poster and long-time lurker. Just wanted to get some thoughts on Lazard's Middle Market Advisory group. People from past threads seem to bash the group but talking from people there first hand, they seem to have constant dealflow and occasionally get cross-staffed on larger assignments as well. The analysts operate there as generalists across all industries and restructuring while large-cap Lazard separates analysts into M&A groups (Healthcare, FIG, etc.) or Rx. Since you have the Lazard name and network behind you, would it be worth it to lateral to an EB or BB or is that unnecessary work for minimal gain in order to maximize exit opps chances if the goal is Upper MM PE? Alot of analysts simply list "Lazard" on LinkedIn and gone onto quality MM/UMM PE (think Harvest, GTCR, etc).
Thanks for any insight!
Bump
This forum does seem to have both a positive and negative bias towards certain firms - most likely based on where the majority of posters work/wants to work and that way trying to talk their own firm up, by talking other firms down.
I have only dealt with Lazard MM a little bit, in my Corp Dev role we were about to hire them for a deal, but it fell through before we had a signed engagement letter - but the guys they brought over seemed nice and smart. (I would for sure pick them over other banks I have worked with in that space)
I was also meeting some of the associates and VP's when I was making the switch to IB - In general they seemed nice, smart and like they do have some very interesting deals. The Associate I spoke with was cross staffed with the normal Lazard groups on a few deals as well.
I think from a "winning deals" perspective having the Lazard name is great and probably helps them a lot, but on this forum people will always compare them with Lazard Freres instead of comparing them with top MM banks, which is where they should fall. The Lazard MM guys I spoke seems to have significantly better hours than my friends from Freres, but this is solely based on my observation and not backed by any data.
One negative I heard though was that they have limited focus on growing the MM group, it is mainly to cover a market segment, but not really a focus area from top management.
I dont know anything about exits so cant comment there, but for a career banker i think it looks like a nice place to work, good comp, good hours and interesting deals in the MM space.
Their business cards does say Lazard Middle Market and not Lazard Freres, so trying to represent yourself to a PE recruiter as working for a company you do not, seem ethically wrong to me, but then what do I know - I cant see why you could not go to MM PE or UMM PE from Lazard MM the same way as you could from other MM banks like Blair/Baird/Piper.
Thank you for the insight! Very informative and unbiased. Much appreciated!
Good thoughts, but a correction that business cards and pitch decks say Lazard and not LMM. They go to market as one firm now. Signatures and LinkedIn could vary.
Very interesting and wonder how many ppl represent themselves as Lazard vs LMM with interviewing for Buyside or other roles.
One more quick thought as well regarding MM expansion. I believe there was a post not too long about a new TMT MM MD being hired to set up the MM San Fran operation. Freres already has an office there but I guess they wanted to increase MM presence. Also, heard that the Laz MM office in NYC, which was for some reason located separated from Freres' 30 Rock HQ, is being relocated to 30 Rock for increased "collaboration." Unsure how significant any of these actions are, but does seem to be promising for future growth no?
I wonder if anyone has any knowledge how business is separated/deals are funneled between "Middle Market Advisory" and "M&A and Strategic Advisory"? Lazard lists some transactions on its website and most of the MM deals are somewhere from 100mm - 2bb while Freres' deals seem to be anywhere from 300mm - 50bb. Does this mean that MDs in MM and Freres are competing against one another (wouldn't seem like the most efficient)? Or are deals 2bn given to the MM team so the Freres group can go after bigger fish?
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