Sovereign Advisory
Lazard advises governments, public sector entities and multilateral institutions on the financial issues that arise throughout the credit cycle.
Sovereign engagements involve parties and variables that differ significantly from our corporate clients, under conditions that are simultaneously fiscal and political.
Lazard's Sovereign Advisory team is comprised of experts with nuanced experience and knowledge, including former treasury officials, central bankers, IMF officials, macroeconomists, and capital market and structured finance specialists. This combination allows us to advise on both the technical structuring of a transaction and the institutional negotiations surrounding it.
Our professionals bring deep experience advising clients across credit cycles and within a dynamic geopolitical, economic and business landscape. Our work spans debt issuance, liability management and debt restructuring, market access, asset sales and monetization, and the management of contingent fiscal risk. We have particular expertise serving as the financial advisor to governments in need of creditor engagement.
Key Capabilities
Asset Sales
We advise public sector entities selling or monetizing assets in the context of balance sheet optimization strategies, ranging from conventional privatizations to more structured transactions.
Debt Issuance
We advise public sector entities seeking to raise debt with the objective of minimizing costs. This often takes the form of innovative structured transactions, asset-backed or asset-based, for countries with large infrastructure projects.
Liability Management & Debt Restructuring
We advise governments and government-related entities on liability management transactions and debt restructuring. This consists of supporting governments in their interactions with the IMF, bilateral lenders and commercial lenders.
Market Access Improvement
We advise our clients on comprehensive debt strategies that include macro-fiscal advisory, credit rating advisory, market communication advisory and investor diversification.
Minimizing Contingent Risk
Governments occasionally face the risk that uncontrolled financial dynamics affecting state-owned enterprises or systemically important banks may contaminate governmental finances. We advise them on how to minimize such risk.
The Lazard Difference
We are in the intellectual capital business where our people, their advice and service are our differentiators.
