Lazard Ltd Reports Second-Quarter and First-Half 2021 Results

Record operating revenue for the second quarter and first half of 2021

Record Financial Advisory second quarter with high levels of activity globally

Record Asset Management quarter with average AUM at new high of $276 billion

Lazard Ltd (NYSE: LAZ) today reported operating revenue¹ of $821 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2021. Net income, as adjusted², was $146 million, or $1.28 per share (diluted) for the quarter. On a U.S. GAAP basis, second-quarter 2021 net income was $123 million, or $1.08 per share (diluted).

First-half 2021 net income, as adjusted, was $247 million, or $2.15 per share (diluted). On a U.S. GAAP basis, first-half 2021 net income was $210 million, or $1.83 per share (diluted).

“Lazard had record second-quarter and first-half operating revenue,” said Kenneth M. Jacobs, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lazard. “We are benefitting from investments in our people and technology, our global platform and strong macroeconomic trends, leading to unprecedented activity levels in our businesses.”

Note: Endnotes are on page 6 of this release. A reconciliation of adjusted GAAP to U.S. GAAP is on pages 13-14.

OPERATING REVENUE

Operating revenue¹ was $821 million for the second quarter of 2021, and $1,469 million for the first half of 2021, both record levels, up 51% and 33% respectively from the comparable 2020 periods.

Financial Advisory

Our Financial Advisory results include M&A Advisory, Capital Advisory, Capital Raising, Restructuring, Shareholder Advisory, Sovereign Advisory, and other strategic advisory work for clients.

For the second quarter of 2021, Financial Advisory operating revenue was a record $471 million, 61% higher than the second quarter of 2020.

For the first half of 2021, Financial Advisory operating revenue was $788 million, 34% higher than the first half of 2020.

During and since the second quarter of 2021, Lazard has been engaged in significant and complex M&A transactions and other advisory assignments globally, including the following (clients are in italics): Vivendi’s distribution of 60% of Universal Music Group shares, valued at €19.8 billion and listing of UMG on Euronext Amsterdam, with a total combined equity value of €33 billion; Canada Development Investment Corporation in providing CAD 5.9 billion in financial assistance to Air Canada; Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation’s $4.5 billion sale of Atlantic Aviation to KKR; Prudential Financial’s $3.6 billion sale of its full-service retirement business to Empower Retirement; Allstate’s $2.8 billion sale of Allstate Life Insurance to Blackstone; Charterhouse Capital Partners in Mirion Technologies’ combination with GS Acquisition Holdings Corp II, valuing Mirion at $2.6 billion; Danone’s €1.6 billion sale of its stake in Mengniu; The Special Committee of the Board of Tribune Publishing in its $630 million sale to Alden Global Capital; IBM’s acquisition of Turbonomic; DTE Energy on the spin-off of its Midstream business; Accor in the combination with Ennismore; and Pete & Gerry’s Organics in its sale of a majority stake to Butterfly Equity.

Lazard has one of the world’s preeminent restructuring practices, with a long track record of successfully advising businesses and governments. During and since the second quarter of 2021, we have been engaged in a broad range of highly visible and complex restructuring and debt advisory assignments for debtors or creditors, including roles involving: Abengoa; AccorInvest; Assured Guaranty in connection with Puerto Rico’s restructuring; Brazos Electric Power Cooperative; Cinepolis; Corp Group Banking S.A.; Diamond Offshore Drilling; Garrett Motion; Groupo GICSA; Intelsat S.A.; NMC Health; Seadrill Limited; Stoneway Capital; and Valaris.

Our Capital and Shareholder Advisory practices remain active globally, advising on a broad range of public and private assignments. Our Sovereign Advisory practice continues to be active advising governments, sovereign and sub-sovereign entities across developed and emerging markets.

For a list of publicly announced Financial Advisory transactions on which Lazard advised in the second quarter of 2021, or continued to advise or completed since June 30, 2021, please visit our website at www.lazard.com/businesses/transactions.

Asset Management

In the text portion of this press release, we present our Asset Management results as 1) Management fees and other revenue, and 2) Incentive fees.

For the second quarter of 2021, Asset Management operating revenue was a record $343 million, 40% higher than the second quarter of 2020. For the first half of 2021, Asset Management operating revenue was a record $671 million, 31% higher than the first half of 2020.

For the second quarter of 2021, management fees and other revenue was a record $309 million, 26% higher than the second quarter of 2020, and 5% higher than the first quarter of 2021. For the first half of 2021, management fees and other revenue was $604 million, 18% higher than the first half of 2020.

Average assets under management (AUM) for the second quarter of 2021 was a record $276 billion, 32% higher than the second quarter of 2020, and 6% higher than the first quarter of 2021. Average AUM for the first half of 2021 was $269 billion, 25% higher than the first half of 2020.

AUM as of June 30, 2021, was $277 billion, a quarter-end record, up 29% from June 30, 2020, and up 5% from March 31, 2021. The sequential increase from March 31, 2021 was primarily driven by market appreciation of $12 billion and foreign exchange appreciation of $1.2 billion, partially offset by net outflows of $0.8 billion.

For the second quarter of 2021, incentive fees were $34 million, compared to $1 million for the second quarter of 2020. For the first half of 2021, incentive fees were $67 million, compared to $2 million for the first half of 2020.

OPERATING EXPENSES

Compensation and Benefits

In managing compensation and benefits expense, we focus on annual awarded compensation (cash compensation and benefits plus deferred incentive compensation with respect to the applicable year, net of estimated future forfeitures and excluding charges), a non-GAAP measure. We believe annual awarded compensation is an appropriate measure to assess actual annual compensation cost when also presented with the GAAP measure of compensation cost, which includes applicable-year cash compensation and the amortization of deferred incentive compensation principally attributable to previous years’ deferred compensation. We believe that by managing our business using awarded compensation with a consistent deferral policy, we can better manage our compensation costs, increase our flexibility in the future and build shareholder value over time.

For the second quarter of 2021, we accrued compensation and benefits expense¹ at an adjusted compensation¹ ratio of 59.5%, compared to the second-quarter 2020 ratio of 60.0%. This resulted in $489 million of adjusted compensation and benefits expense, compared to $326 million for the second quarter of 2020.

For the first half of 2021, adjusted compensation and benefits expense¹ was $874 million, compared to $663 million for the first half of 2020.

We manage our compensation and benefits expense based on awarded compensation with a consistent deferral policy. We take a disciplined approach to compensation, and our goal is to maintain a compensation-to-operating revenue ratio over the cycle in the mid- to high-50s percentage range on both an awarded and adjusted basis, with consistent deferral policies.

Non-Compensation Expense

Adjusted non-compensation expense¹ for the second quarter of 2021 was $119 million, 19% higher than the second quarter of 2020. The increase primarily reflects higher marketing and business development expenses, including travel and technology investments. The ratio of adjusted non-compensation expense to operating revenue for the second quarter of 2021 was 14.5%, compared to 18.3% for the second quarter of 2020.

Adjusted non-compensation expense¹ for the first half of 2021 was $221 million, 4% higher than the first half of 2020. The ratio of adjusted non-compensation expense to operating revenue for the first half of 2021 was 15.1%, compared to 19.2% for the first half of 2020.

Our goal remains to achieve an adjusted non-compensation expense-to-operating revenue ratio over the cycle of 16% to 20%.

TAXES

The provision for taxes, on an adjusted basis¹, was $49 million for the second quarter and $90 million for the first half of 2021. The effective tax rate on the same basis was 25.2% for the second quarter and 26.7% for the first half of 2021, compared to 23.9% and 26.3% for the respective 2020 periods.

CAPITAL MANAGEMENT AND BALANCE SHEET

Our primary capital management goals include managing debt and returning capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.

In the second quarter of 2021, Lazard returned $161 million to shareholders, which included: $50 million in dividends; $111 million in share repurchases of our Class A common stock; and $1 million in satisfaction of employee tax obligations in lieu of share issuances upon vesting of equity grants.

In the first half of 2021, Lazard returned $398 million to shareholders, which included: $99 million in dividends; $234 million in share repurchases of our Class A common stock; and $66 million in satisfaction of employee tax obligations in lieu of share issuances upon vesting of equity grants.

During the first half of 2021, we repurchased 5.3 million shares at an average price of $43.86 per share, which included 2.4 million shares repurchased in the second quarter at an average price of $45.72 per share. As of June 30, 2021, our remaining share repurchase authorization was $366 million.

On July 29, 2021, Lazard declared a quarterly dividend of $0.47 per share on its outstanding common stock. The dividend is payable on August 20, 2021, to stockholders of record on August 9, 2021.

Lazard’s financial position remains strong. As of June 30, 2021, our cash and cash equivalents were $980 million, and stockholders’ equity related to Lazard’s interests was $827 million.

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CONFERENCE CALL

Lazard will host a conference call at 8:00 a.m. EDT on July 30, 2021, to discuss the company’s financial results for the second quarter and first half of 2021. The conference call can be accessed via a live audio webcast available through Lazard’s Investor Relations website at www.lazard.com, or by dialing 1 (888) 204-4368 (U.S. and Canada) or +1 (323) 794-2423 (outside of the U.S. and Canada), 15 minutes prior to the start of the call.

A replay of the conference call will be available by 10:00 a.m. EDT on July 30, 2021, via the Lazard Investor Relations website, or by dialing 1 (888) 203-1112 (U.S. and Canada) or +1 (719) 457-0820 (outside of the U.S. and Canada). The replay access code is 5906953.

ABOUT LAZARD

Lazard, one of the world's preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms, operates from 41 cities across 26 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America. With origins dating to 1848, the firm provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, strategic matters, restructuring and capital structure, capital raising and corporate finance, as well as asset management services to corporations, partnerships, institutions, governments and individuals. For more information on Lazard, please visit www.lazard.com. Follow Lazard at @Lazard.

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Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “may”, “might”, “will”, “should”, “could”, “would”, “expect”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “predict”, “potential”, “target,” “goal”, or “continue”, and the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies, business plans and initiatives and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

These factors include, but are not limited to, those discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K under Item 1A “Risk Factors,” and also discussed from time to time in our reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K, including the following:

• A decline in general economic conditions or the global or regional financial markets;
• A decline in our revenues, for example due to a decline in overall mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, our share of the M&A market or our assets under management (AUM);
• Losses caused by financial or other problems experienced by third parties;
• Losses due to unidentified or unanticipated risks;
• A lack of liquidity, i.e., ready access to funds, for use in our businesses; and
• Competitive pressure on our businesses and on our ability to retain and attract employees at current compensation levels.

Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance or achievements. Neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We are under no duty to update any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this release to conform our prior statements to actual results or revised expectations and we do not intend to do so.

Lazard Ltd is committed to providing timely and accurate information to the investing public, consistent with our legal and regulatory obligations. To that end, Lazard and its operating companies use their websites to convey information about their businesses, including the anticipated release of quarterly financial results, quarterly financial, statistical and business-related information, and the posting of updates of assets under management in various mutual funds, hedge funds and other investment products managed by Lazard Asset Management LLC and Lazard Frères Gestion SAS. Investors can link to Lazard and its operating company websites through www.lazard.com.

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ENDNOTES

¹ A non-U.S. GAAP measure. See attached financial schedules and related notes for a detailed explanation of adjustments to corresponding U.S. GAAP results. We believe that presenting our results on an adjusted basis in addition to the U.S. GAAP results is a meaningful and useful basis to compare our operating results across periods.

² Second-quarter and first-half 2021 adjusted results¹ exclude losses of $23.6 million associated with restructuring and closing of certain offices; pre-tax charges of $1.2 million and $2.7 million, respectively, relating to office space reorganization; and $5.7 million and $15.3 million, respectively, relating to expenses associated with restructuring and closing of certain offices. On a U.S. GAAP basis, these resulted in a net charge of $22.6 million, or $0.20 (diluted) per share, for the second quarter, and a net charge of $36.5 million, or $0.32 (diluted) per share, for the first half of 2021.

LAZ-EPE

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