Goldman Sachs Upgrades Lazard Ltd To A "Conviction Buy"

Lazard Earnings Rise 75% on Deals

BY MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED

Lazard, via Associated PressKenneth M. Jacobs, Lazard’s chief executive.

An improving market for deals and cost-cutting bolstered Lazard’s third-quarter earnings, as the investment bank reported on Thursday a 75 percent increase in profit from the period a year earlier.

The firm said it earned $62 million in adjusted profit for the quarter, amounting to 46 cents a share. On average, analysts had been expecting a profit of 35 cents a share, according to estimates compiled by Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ.

Lazard also reported a 10 percent rise in operating revenue, to $489 million.

“It was a solid quarter on both sides of the business,” Kenneth M. Jacobs, Lazard’s chief executive, said by telephone.

The improvement in Lazard’s results reflect, in part, a rise in markets, which has helped both the firm’s core financial advisory arm and its asset management business.

Its best-known operation, its mergers arm, reported a 3 percent rise in revenue, to $192 million. Assignments that the firm completed in the quarter included the sale of the Dutch coffee and tea company D.E. Master Blenders 1753 to Joh. A. Benckiser and the $2.8 billion sale of Ameristar Casinos to Pinnacle Entertainment.

Mr. Jacobs said he expected mergers activity to continue rising, given continued improvement in global economies and increased confidence in corporate boardrooms.

“The change in the last six to 12 months has generally been confidence,” he said. “That augurs well for deals.”

And Lazard’s asset management arm reported a 13 percent rise in revenue, to $248 million, as the firm’s assets under management rose to a record $176 billion thanks to increasing values and new client money.

The investment bank also disclosed that it held its adjusted compensation ratio at 60 percent, compared with 62.7 percent in the period a year earlier. Its ratio of noncompensation expenses to operating revenue fell to 19.7 percent from 21.5 percent.

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Lloyd a buy after de-nationalization

Researchers Re-Engineer E-Coli DNA to Make it Programmable

A team of synthetic biologists led by Farren Isaacs at Yale University [has taken] Escherichia coli cells and replaced all of the UAG stop codons with UAAs. They also deleted the instructions for making the release factor that usually binds to UAG, effectively rendering UAG meaningless…

The next step was to assign a new meaning to UAG during protein production. The team did this by designing molecules called transfer RNAs and accompanying enzymes that would attach an unnatural amino acid – fed to the cell – wherever they spotted the UAG codon…

By reintroducing UAGs at specific locations, as the Yale team have done, unnatural amino acids can be added into proteins at will.

"We now have an organism that has a new code, and we can reliably and efficiently open up the chemical diversity of proteins," says Isaacs.

For example, artificial amino acids could be added that give proteins unusual properties, such as the ability to bind to metals – resulting in novel adhesives. Or enzymes could be developed that are activated only in the presence of other molecules – which could be useful for drugs. “The genetic code is conserved for all of life, so this is a fundamental step forward,” says Philipp Holliger of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. He says that because so much of the genetic code is redundant, there might be other codons that could be reassigned to expand the chemistry of living organisms.

(via Reprogrammed bacterium speaks new language of life - life - 23 October 2013 - New Scientist)

Royal Mail to go public (advised by Lazard

The British package service Royal mail was available to private investors last week, they are being advised through this process by Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ). Lazard is a financial advisory founded in 1848 with noted leaders like CEO Kenneth Jacobs. Seeing a wave of investors jumping on a chance to invest, placing orders for far more shares than being offered. They are making their full public offering on October 11th, individuals interested in investing can apply for shared but the offer is expected to close on October 8th. Positives for investing  Royal Mail is well placed for growth from online shopping. Leading provider of postal services in the UK Royal mail has been restructuring to be more efficient since 2008 Negatives of investing Letter volume continues to decline as digital press increases. Disputes with trade union could disrupt national distribution Performance is effected by macroeconomic trends Has an aging IT infrastructure.

  http://aclassasset.blogspot.com/2013/10/royal-mail-goes-public-as-advised-by.html

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Via Sam Sykes/Twitter

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