Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund held detailed talks to buy Lazard
Also in today’s newsletter, UBS faces penalties over Archegos and Adobe’s Figma deal faces EU probe
Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ held detailed talks to take Wall Street investment bank Lazard private, in a move that underlined the oil-rich emirate’s ambitions to acquire a western financial services company.
The talks were held this year between Lazard, led by outgoing chief executive Ken Jacobs, and ADQ, led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the fund’s chair and Abu Dhabi’s powerful national security adviser, said people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Negotiations fell apart after both sides walked away from a deal. Lazard, which is best known for its advisory business in Paris, New York and London, had been focused on maintaining operating independence, one person added.
Lazard said: “As you’d expect, we talk to people all the time but we don’t comment on speculation.” ADQ declined to comment.
A deal would have marked the end of a remarkable 175-year run for Lazard as an independent financial house that withstood world wars, massive shifts in the global economy and various tensions between its larger-than-life rainmakers on both sides of the Atlantic.