Lazard To Hire CitiGroup’s Renton
Bermuda’s Lazard Ltd., the biggest non-bank merger adviser, hired energy investment banker Mark Renton from Citigroup Inc. to boost market share in oil and gas takeovers, “Business Week” reports today [Dec. 5].
Mr. Renton plans to join Lazard in the new year according to sources who spoke to the magazine on condition of anonymity.
Mr. enton, who will be based in New York, most recently was a vice chairman in Citigroup’s energy investment- banking unit and previously served as co-head of the public sector group and head of Asia-Pacific investment banking.
Lazard aims to boost fees from the oil and gas industry after mostly missing out on a takeover boom. In 2010, when the industry announced a record $290 billion in mergers, Lazard worked on $1.79 billion of them, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That made the Hamilton, Bermuda-based firm the 30th- biggest adviser, compared with its No. 10 ranking overall.
The Bermuda firm offers financial advisory and asset management services from some 40 offices in the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Lazard’s investment banking arm provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, strategy, and restructuring and corporate finance services; specialties include the consumer, health care, energy, real estate, media, and telecommunications sectors.
Lazard has some $155 billion in assets under management, most of it in international equities; it primarily serves institutional investors as well as governments and wealthy individuals.
