M&A and Strategic Advisory

Male and Female Lazard Colleagues Walk Down Set of Stairs Male and Female Lazard Colleagues Walk Down Set of Stairs

Lazard is one of the world's leading advisors on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and related strategic matters.

Our M&A and Strategic Advisory practice
partners with public and private corporate clients to deliver world-class independent advice on all financial, strategic and tactical elements of evaluating and executing M&A transactions, as well as formulating comprehensive strategies to grow their businesses.

Lazard’s capabilities encompass all types of M&A transactions: mergers; buy-side acquisitions; sell-side divestitures and company sale processes; joint ventures; partnerships and more.

In addition to executing transactions, we frequently collaborate with clients to advise on their strategic and financial challenges. We help clients identify, devise and pursue strategies to serve stakeholders, accomplish their goals, and maximize shareholder value.


Key Capabilities

Lazard is known globally for leadership and innovation in the M&A industry. As close and trusted strategic advisors, our senior bankers distinguish themselves through deep and specialized knowledge of their clients’ industries and detailed sector transaction expertise.

The broad range of industries our bankers advise on include:

  • Consumer and Retail
  • Financial Institutions
  • Financial Sponsors
  • Healthcare
  • Industrials
  • Power, Energy and Infrastructure
  • Real Estate, Gaming and Lodging
  • Technology
  • Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment

Lazard thrives in the most complex business contexts, with specialized capabilities that sets our M&A and Strategic Advisory practice apart. Lazard’s long history, global nature, reputation for discretion and lack of institutional conflicts of interest make us uniquely qualified to advise on and execute transactions which require particular sensitivity, expertise and judgment.

With 175 years of history and a presence in 26 countries, Lazard is the most multinational and deeply connected of independent M&A and strategic advisory firms.

As such, we are uniquely positioned to advise companies on cross-border transactions involving counterparties across national boundaries.

Collaborative professionals across our global offices possess valuable experience and expertise needed to navigate local capital markets, governments and regulatory environments, tax issues and cultural considerations. This expertise helps make Lazard one of the world's leading advisors on cross-border M&A.

We help clients optimize the value of their corporate asset portfolios with innovative structural alternatives to unlock shareholder value and maximize future business performance.

By evaluating transformational transactions like separations and de-mergers, we guide companies through periods critical to their corporate identities with the highest-quality financial and strategic advice.

Lazard also advises on all aspects of the execution of these complicated transactions, helping to set newly independent companies up for success.

Lazard helps its corporate clients defend themselves from unsolicited approaches from both strategic acquirers and activist shareholders.

Lazard’s takeover defense practice draws on all of Lazard's vast resources and deep expertise to devise preventative and responsive measures to unsolicited activity, allowing clients to maintain control of their own destinies and maximize shareholder value on their own terms.

Lazard has an unmatched history of representing Independent Directors and Special Committees of Boards of Directors in critical M&A and strategic advisory contexts in which objectivity and discretion are of the utmost importance.

In these situations, Lazard provides corporate decision-makers with advice and insights into shareholder concerns unencumbered by conflicts of interest, and always backed by strong analysis and a proven track record.

Lazard's Private Market Advisory (PMA) group serves the unique needs of privately held companies and private equity sponsors. The PMA group builds on the success of the firm's longstanding middle market advisory business, while leveraging the full resources of Lazard’s global platform. Our professionals bring senior-level attention, deep industry expertise, global access to C-level relationships, strategic insights and judgment. Our services include:

M&A and Strategic Matters – Our PMA group provides long-term advice to shape strategy, optimize capital structure, and manage risk and support growth. Areas of expertise include private equity divestitures, private company sales, and corporate acquisitions and divestitures.

Private Financing – Our private financing advisory group is integrated with our industry teams to offer clients both debt and equity placement services, including debt financings, structured/minority equity capital raising, and capital for acquisitions, growth, refinancings, and recapitalizations.

Financial Sponsors Group – Our financial sponsors group develops and maintains a broad network of relationships with leading private equity, family office, pension fund, and other financial sponsors around the world. Large or small, global or regional, we meet our financial sponsor clients wherever they are, providing world-class investment banking services in any situation.

Our coverage sectors:

• Business Services and Education – tech-enabled services and business process outsourcing, education services, human capital management, information and IT services, facilities management, and marketing and media services

• Consumer, Food and Retail – consumer, leisure, food/agriculture, and e-commerce/retail

• Healthcare
– pharma distribution and outsourcing, healthcare services providers, and managed care services

• Industrials
– aerospace and defense, automotive aftermarket, building products and construction, chemicals, engineered industrials, industrial products and services, oilfield products and services, packaging and plastics, and transportation and logistics

• Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment
– fiber-to-the-home, cable, local exchange carriers, fiber infrastructure, commercial fiber, wireless carriers, wireless towers, fixed wireless, network services, and broadcasting


Featured Transactions

January 17, 2024 United Kingdom, United States
November 13, 2023 Canada, Spain, United Kingdom
July 06, 2023 United States
June 30, 2023 United States

All Transactions

March 14, 2024 Germany, United States

Encavis executes Investment Agreement with KKR and supports voluntary public takeover from KKR; Viessmann to invest as co-investor in KKR-led consortium

$5.1 Billion

March 13, 2024 Germany, Japan

MVV subsidiary Juwi sells shares in Japanese joint venture companies

Undisclosed

March 13, 2024 Germany, Italy

Iveco Group announces the signing of a definitive agreement with Mutares to transfer the ownership of Magirus

Undisclosed

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