Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ held detailed talks to take Wall Street investment bank Lazard private, in a move that underlined the oil-rich emirate’s ambitions to acquire a western financial services company.
The talks were held this year between Lazard, led by outgoing chief executive Ken Jacobs, and ADQ, led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the fund’s chair and Abu Dhabi’s powerful national security adviser, said people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Negotiations fell apart after both sides walked away from a deal. Lazard, which is best known for its advisory business in Paris, New York and London, had been focused on maintaining operating independence, one person added.
Lazard said: “As you’d expect, we talk to people all the time but we don’t comment on speculation.” ADQ declined to comment.
A deal would have marked the end of a remarkable 175-year run for Lazard as an independent financial house that withstood world wars, massive shifts in the global economy and various tensions between its larger-than-life rainmakers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on:
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Economic data: Germany has its producer price index for last month and Kantar has grocery market share figures for the UK.
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World Refugee Day: More than 40 companies including Amazon, Hilton and Starbucks have announced they will collectively hire more than 13,000 refugees.
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Titanic expedition search: Officials race against time to find a submersible vessel that went missing en route to view the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, with British billionaire Hamish Harding on board.
Five more top stories
1. UBS faces more than $400mn in penalties over Credit Suisse’s mishandling of Archegos Capital after Swiss, US and UK regulators completed their investigations into the affair, according to people with knowledge of the probes. Read the full story.
2. Exclusive: Adobe’s $20bn deal to acquire rival Figma faces the threat of a lengthy antitrust probe in the EU after UK and US regulators set their sights on the software giant’s attempt to consolidate the digital design market. Here’s why the bloc’s move could ultimately derail the deal.
3. Exclusive: Qatar is set to secure a second deal to supply liquefied natural gas to China for 27 years. The agreement comes just seven months after China’s Sinopec reached a similar deal with QatarEnergy. Read more about the rush to secure long-term agreements with one of the world’s top LNG exporters.
4. Jeffrey Epstein claimed to have brokered meetings with high-ranking UK ministers for Jes Staley, then a senior executive at JPMorgan Chase, according to an internal investigation by the bank. JPMorgan’s findings detail how the late sex offender had offered to set up meetings at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Here are the ministers named in the 22-page report.
5. Big asset managers are pressuring tech companies over potential misuse of artificial intelligence as they become concerned about the liability for human rights risks linked to the technology, including surveillance, discrimination and mass lay-offs. Read more from the coalition of financial institutions representing $6.9tn in assets under management.
The Big Read
In January, scientists from the UN atomic watchdog visited Iran’s secretive Fordow nuclear facility and made a shocking discovery: uranium there had been enriched to record levels of purity, suggesting Tehran was closer than ever to having the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. Western diplomats have quietly resumed talks, but some think it may be too late to halt the Islamic republic’s march to nuclear statehood.
We’re also reading . . .
Chart of the day
On Thursday, the Bank of England is set to raise its benchmark interest rate to 4.75 per cent as it battles an inflation problem that has become more difficult and persistent over the past month. But will this 13th consecutive increase in borrowing costs be enough to calm UK markets?
Take a break from the news
Chief economics commentator Martin Wolf has selected his favourite books of the year so far. Keep up to date with our full summer reading list here.
Additional contributions by Gordon Smith and Emily Goldberg
