Pierre Cailleteau, who leads Lazard’s sovereign advisory team.
Photographer: Julie Glassberg for Bloomberg Markets
The Big Take
Lazard, King of Emerging-Market Debt, Faces a New World Order
Along with the demands of China and debt investors, the company faces more vigorous competition, including from its own former bankers.
It was the kind of job the bankers working out of Lazard Inc.’s Paris office were known for: Fly into a country drowning in debt—in this case, Zambia—and help rescue it from financial ruin.
For decades, Lazard dominated these developing-world restructurings. Just about anytime a hard-pressed government fell hopelessly behind on bills, a few dozen bankers would arrive, usually with Lazard’s team at the center, to hash out new terms in a matter of months.
