Lazard Middle Market Bolsters Three Groups
Indirect subsidiary of Lazard announces personnel moves affecting its M&A, restructuring and private placement businesses.
June 30, 2008
Lazard Middle Market (LMM) has hired three managing directors for its M&A and restructuring practices, and assigned another managing director to lead its private placement group.
LMM brought on middle-market M&A advisor Robert Frost from Piper Jaffray and Andrew Samett from Bear Stearns. Samett will become co-head of LMM's distressed advisory and restructuring team with managing director Andrew Torgove.
LMM also tapped M&A banker Scott J.R. Smith from Wachovia Securities to lead its new Southeast office in Charlotte, NC. In addition, LMM managing director Robin Engelson was named head of private placements.
Kenneth Jacobs, chief executive of Lazard's North American operations, in his statement suggested that Lazard has not faced the same kind of struggles many of its bulge-bracket peers have endured amid the fallout from the credit crisis. "By adding senior talent to our existing teams in M&A, restructuring and private placement, and establishing a base in the Southeastern region, we will be able to continue to extend our reach in this vibrant market," he said.
Samett will be based out of New York, while Engelson and Frost will work in LMM's Minneapolis headquarters.
LMM was established upon Lazard's acquisition of Minneapolis-based middle-market boutique Goldsmith Agio Helms last year. The chairman of LMM, Jack Helms, was named IDD's 2007 Middle-Market Banker of the Year.
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