Private Markets 360° | Episode 37: Lazard’s Global Outlook

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Chris Sparenberg [00:00:02]:

Welcome to Private Markets 360, your insider's guide to the world of private investments. Today we're excited to have Adam, Cady and Klaus H. Hessberger, global co heads of financial sponsors at Lazard, joining us. With extensive experience in the financial sector, both Adam and Klaus are shaping Lazard's approach to private equity and financial sponsors and to transform Lazard into the premier global financial sponsor advisor. Adam has spent approximately 20 years at bank of America before he joined Lazard in 2024, honing his expertise in navigating complex financial landscapes. While Klaus, who joined Lazard in 2025, brings over 25 years of experience from his time at JP Morgan, where he's run both the financial sponsors business and the European equity markets business. Under their leadership, Lazard is establishing itself as the premier global financial sponsors house, leveraging its heritage, extensive global reach and sector expertise to provide strategic insights to clients across the world. Today, Adam and Klaus will share their perspectives on the current state of the global financial sponsors markets, the impact of geopolitical trends and the innovative strategies that are driving success and continued growth in the financial sponsors space.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:01:17]:

Klaus and Adam, welcome to Private Markets360. It's a pleasure to have you both with us today. How are you doing? Great.

 

 Adam Cady [00:01:23]:

Thanks for having us.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:01:25]:

Fantastic. Adam, to start things off, would you please share how Lazard has evolved its approach to becoming the premier global financial advisory firm and what key factors you believe have contributed to your success in navigating the complexities of today's private markets?

 

 Adam Cady [00:01:47]:

Sure. So first of all, again, thanks for having Klaus and I on today. Maybe just a quick kind of backdrop in history. When Peter orszag became our CEO in October of 2023, he set out his 2030 vision, which essentially comes down to doubling the revenues of the firm by then. There's many facets that are supporting the growth we're seeing. For example, continued expansion of our senior advisory talent, geographic expansion and in many cases that are centered around private capital hubs, expansion of our product capabilities and also increasing the client penetration of our existing market leading product capabilities such as secondaries, restructuring, liability management, et cetera. Specific to this conversation, becoming the premier global financial sponsors advisor is a central element to the firm's long term growth plan. Positioning private equity and private capital more broadly is one of Lazard's key strategic priorities.

 

 Adam Cady [00:02:43]:

When I joined Lazard two years ago, we had good relationships with financial sponsors across the globe. But we lacked an organized, holistic and relationship driven approach to serving this client base and executing on. This is where we've made substantial progress to date. Another observation when I joined which I wholeheartedly believed coming in was the phenomenal quality of our bankers, our next level sector expertise and the deep corporate relationships we have around the world. And given a large portion of M and A activity transacts between corporates and sponsors. Which is definitely true for Lazard's book of business. We're building a durable financial sponsors business that places us at the nexus of sponsor and corporate deal making. Which given our global corporate relationships I believe is a real competitive advantage for us.

 

 Adam Cady [00:03:27]:

So what have we been up to? We've really invested very well in the financial sponsors business here at Lazard. Make sure we have the best talent to execute on our strategy. Klaus and I have created one global financial sponsors team operating off of common strategy execution plan and knowledge sharing process. We've done the work to distill and identify the best opportunities within our clients portfolios and are prosecuting that business and coordinating across geographies sectors and our product groups to ensure we're delivering the entire firm to our clients. To your question, part of your question around navigating complexity in these markets. Obviously not everything's a straight line forward but I think the good thing is we can we have amazing capabilities to help our clients achieve their goals. So maximizing value through a strategic sale public to private carve out. That's all bread and butter at Lazard.

 

 Adam Cady [00:04:20]:

But under scenarios where a sponsor's preferred asset exit is via IPO but that market isn't in great shape, comps aren't where they need to be. But the sponsor needs liquidity. Our secondary team can elongate their exposure to that business via continuation fund or a private IPO in order to find a better time in the market down the road. Or another example is given recent geopolitical events portfolio company hits hard times in the balance sheet stressed a restructuring and liability management team can help to stabilize the situation and maximize value preservation. So those would be my comments around that.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:04:56]:

You mentioned unifying the business globally and I'm sure that connects a lot of dots for clients. Can you tell us how you plan to enhance Lazarus global connectivity for financial sponsors?

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:05:06]:

Good afternoon and Happy New Year. Chris, thanks for asking how we are connecting the dots to better help our clients. Let me start with how we at LASA have been positioned. Lazar is unique. If you go back we have our strong brand with the 175 year history. We have a real global independent advisory platform on both sides of the Atlantic and we are regional leaders. What do I Mean by this, we are present in our core markets and countries and in them we are very active advising the corporates and governments. As Adam defined it, this combination of the heritage, the scale and this boutique focus is unique.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:05:47]:

And that's a big part why Adam and I decided to join the firm when we both stepped into our seats. To your point, we received detailed feedback from various of the financial sponsor clients. A how would they like to have even better connectivity of the lasagne firm? And B how more cohesive coverage could help even that we are more impactful to them. Handelman I took this feedback on when we defined our global strategy and turned it immediately into execution mode. Let me start with Europe where we Adam and I brought the European coverage team together of our key product and country partners and we organized an off site early July in Paris and then implemented three of our key strategies. Firstly, what we did, we created in Europe a pan European coverage group where we partner the pan European coverage executive. So somebody who covers the fund across Europe together with FSG country captains, leaders in each country, who supports the client. How does this help the clients? They get the right integrated attention and senior focus and we help them both on the European and on a country level.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:07:08]:

Secondly, when we had set up the team, we connected the dots. We on the product side where we combine our partners on the M and A advisory side, on the secondary and continuation fund business as Adam has just put it, on the dcm, ECM and gross equity side, fostering a real partnership with our own teams. And finally we rallied our global industry sector bankers to ensure that we actually cover the portfolio companies of the sponsors, which is very important both on the acquisition, meaning on the buy side side, but also on the exit side on the sponsors. When all this was implemented and running in Europe, we actually continued on global level. So before Christmas Adam and I got the team together in New York and to form this global financial sponsor team which really what does it mean? Our clients now get number one fully up to date so the teams communicate well. But number two, although the clients get the access or the help to the service we as Lazar can provide. What does it mean for example on the connectivity side, when there are deals done on each side of the Atlantic, we share them with the team and can immediately share the practices with the clients. But we also provide market intelligence which is very helpful for our clients.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:08:38]:

On the product tailored side, the interesting offering of LASA Adam mentioned, we do the secondary, we do debt advice. We're going to come back to arena later and we also do equity advisory where we have also this geopolitical advisory team where we can even provide further insights what's happening on geopolitical side of our clients. So in some the global FSG team is running and we have connected the dots on a global level.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:09:04]:

Klaus Adam, thank you for that one follow on question there. Do you believe that as you are setting up this global connectivity, are you doing this or have you seen that it's been more in response to the clients that you work with also becoming more global? Or are you doing it as you maybe not have seen that so much yet, but you're setting it up because that's where you think the trends are as you look outward.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:09:39]:

Thank you Georce. Lena, you raise a very valid point. Our clients are becoming more global. So starting for example on the European side, the European funds are expanding. In the US they're targeting LPs. They want us to help them in the US and the same is for the big global asset managers when they are growing. And Adam will come a bit later to it, they are active in Europe and by us providing holistic global services where LASA is active on both sides of the Atlantic, we provide much more added value as if we would do it only on a regional level.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:10:15]:

Great. Appreciate that clarification. And Adam, focusing on private credit for a moment, you mentioned that banks and financial sponsors are playing more of an active role within private credit today. And while neither is entirely new to private credit, what do you see driving the evolving approach for maybe start with banks to participate in private credit?

 

 Adam Cady [00:10:49]:

Yeah, sure. Obviously as you mentioned, private credit's been around for a while and it's I think at this point a pretty core piece of the financial market market structure for sure from a competitive standpoint. I think at this point almost all the banks, I'll call them the balance sheet banks, have developed a strategy, whether that's their own capital or partnership with a third party to try and participate in this market versus their core focus historically has been broadly syndicated loans and high yield bonds. For the alternative asset managers, private credit's a great way to grow and there's a ton of demand from their investors for this asset class. So I think this market is huge and here to stay. And the banks are trying to balance their participation in the private credit market with the regulatory apparatus that surrounds them. So that's an ongoing evolution where what's interesting within private credit that we're seeing from a trendline perspective, I think it's becoming much more expansive around where on the balance sheet they can play in the cap structure. We're seeing rather than just a regular term loan in the private credit market, people attaching and really detaching way deeper in the capital structure.

 

 Adam Cady [00:11:59]:

So seeing more comprehensive financing packages that provide a single strip of capital to effectively combine the traditional debt tranche with some of the equity risk, whether that's through the attached detach or the preferred or common equity. And that just won't deep unit tranche simplifies things for the issuer. If an issuer wants to refinance their debt, pay out a dividend, sell minority stake in their business or all the above, the private credit hybrid market can construct a flexible solution to solve the client's goals. So I think all these different pockets within private credit at these asset managers are able to construct a solution based on what the client needs. So I think it's just the breadth and the flexibility is key. I think second big moving object is insurance capital. Again not everyone has access to it, but for those that have it, it's providing very flexible and interesting use cases for investment grade corporates. Whether that's a straight replacement of the bank and bond market product for ieg issuances, large scale financings, we're seeing this to help fund infrastructure build out or the purchasing of large minority or majority stakes and divisions of these public investment grade rated corporate entities.

 

 Adam Cady [00:13:13]:

So again the tool sets there on these multi asset alternative asset managers and really they're looking to provide solutions and they can construct anything all the way from single B risk and triple C risk all the way up to investment grade risk. So that's exciting. I think we're in early innings of that deployment and so I think that's one to watch for sure.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:13:34]:

Absolutely. We've noticed some similar trends. And Klaus, what more can you add? Anything in particular about working with some of the financial sponsors and maybe where they're thinking about whether or not to try and get that rating to go more of the broadly syndicated route. Maybe some of the benefits to that versus weighing some of the benefits to the more flexible private credit road.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:14:09]:

Thank you, Jocelyn. Yeah, it's a very good point. I think the good news on our side, we are also a debt advisor, as I said before. And the other good news is we have started this partnership with Arini where we have a kind of a JV structure where we work together with them, also providing our own or in partnership direct lending offering. So what does it mean for us? Joseline is actually on the one hand we can see when we advise the clients where the financing is and we have our own pricing where the market is when the big LBO is happening, which is very helpful. And on the other hand, when clients come to us and to your point, the sponsors need some quick acquisition for the portfolio company to find some additional pocket of money. We can check with them where the banks are on lending and number two, we check with our friends at arena, they can come up with some own solution so we can show them.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:15:05]:

What'S.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:15:06]:

The best way of financing for them. So this independence and having access to both pockets makes us a valuable advisor to our sponsor clients.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:15:16]:

Appreciate that. Thank you Klaus. And changing gears a little. Adam, want to focus a bit on geopolitical factors that have been going on and discussed a lot and talking about both, both underwriting as well as portfolio monitoring. So how are you assessing the current geopolitical landscape today and what specific factors do you see most relevant for your clients today?

 

 Adam Cady [00:15:49]:

Yeah, sure. Obviously super topical topic. So the geopolitical environments definitely one of the most tense and volatile and living memory. So many of the assumptions we've lived under for decades are totally being challenged. At Lazard we have a geopolitical advisory team which is led by Teddy Bunzl and he put out a report this month just around top geopolitical trends shaping risk in 2026 and how those are impacting decision making. So I would, if I had to summarize, there's 10 if I had to summarize into three kind of epicenters of risk that will matter most across sectors and regions in this coming year. The first I'd start with is great Power fragmentation and geopolitical realignment. So economic interventionism's going global with more tariffs, export controls, national champion policies.

 

 Adam Cady [00:16:40]:

The eu, China confrontations intensifying with Europe deploying its own industrial security agenda. This is causing a shift towards onshoring or friendshoring of assets, people running towards regulation, resilient business models and domestically anchored revenue bases. The second one I'd highlight is the accelerated AI and technological competition. AI obviously has been a national security priority as countries tighten rules around compute data flows and model deployment. The US and China are escalating competition over semiconductors, compute infrastructure and frontier model capabilities. This is expanding sponsor opportunities in AI enabling infrastructure. We see that every day. Data centers, chips, power, cloud adjacent tooling and cybersecurity.

 

 Adam Cady [00:17:28]:

I think this topic is creating a lot of investment opportunity across the financial sponsor landscape. It also increases the need for diligence on things like national security, regulatory approvals, export controls, all things that have been around but Obviously heightened awareness for anyone looking to put dollars to work and then away from the AI technology itself. Sponsors are hyper focused on evaluating AI readiness and productivity uplift potential as a core value creation lever for existing as well as new investments. So obviously it's topic du jour, as it should be, but I think people are definitely trying to figure out how it can help them and how not to make missteps on areas that can hurt them. The third and final kind of big point, the rise of state driven industrial policy. So governments are scaling industrial policy tools, subsidies, terror shields, tax breaks, et cetera. Strategic sectors such as EVs, Defense and Green tech are facing both support and heightened scrutiny. So for sponsors this creates investable themes in subsidy aligned sectors, but also raises the need for policy durability diligence.

 

 Adam Cady [00:18:42]:

Sponsors are not stepping back because of all these things and there's many more risks to walk through, but they're approaching investment with far greater geopolitical awareness, deeper scenario analysis, more focus on supply chain resilience and a sharper view on how policy risk affects returns. It's definitely become a top tier issue rather than, I think historically a contextual one.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:19:03]:

And Klaus, it would be great to hear some examples of how Lazard is specifically helping clients navigate these risks.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:19:09]:

Yeah. Thank you Chris. As Adam put it nicely, by having this LGA team led by Teddy, we can really help our sponsors actively. What is a platform, what does a team, how does it consist? It's quite differentiating. So it's a group of former military senior advisors, national security advisors, policy experts and real economists. They work all hand in hand with our sector teams and our team to help the sponsors. So this is of course quite interesting for the sponsors because they on the one hand they take decisions for a new acquisition, as Adam put it, take a company private or buy an asset from another sponsor and they want to know what are the risks, especially for the exit in five years time. And to give you some examples, I can quote you, we need to of course do it on no names basis.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:20:03]:

But firstly to give you one example, we have been working with large 500 billion global multi strategy financial sponsors or sponsor which provides all the products we talked about before, where we were on call for a year on a kind of retainer basis to provide some geopolitical insights on everything they did. An investment in a new deal, an adjustment of the portfolio and the team was on call on standby to help them. A second good example is for example a pension fund, a group of financial investors. Adam and I also do Cover with our team on a global level there, for example those pension funds, they put portfolios together and what they ask our team their geopolitical shocks like for example when the tariffs came out or other political events. And they ask us what is the impact on the portfolio and how they should adjust the portfolio. So our team give some nuanced geopolitical advice on this topic. And last but not least, finally a typical financial sponsor around 20 billion asset under management globally set up. They ask us, look, we have this unique opportunity to buy an asset with some exposure and latam is of course quite critical at the moment.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:21:21]:

What does it mean A by buying the asset with the exposure to this country. But number two, it's a very marginal exposure. How in my horizon of ownership as a five years can I solve it or move it aside to prepare myself for the exit? So these are a couple of good examples where the team led by Teddy has not only provided presentations and as Adam put it, they published a full report. But they're acting really as corporate finance advisors and our sponsor clients take decisions to action to buy and sell sides on the basis of sysadvice.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:21:58]:

It certainly sounds a lot like full spectrum advisory from pre to post and almost everything in between.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:22:05]:

Correct. Which is like a. I could. In simple terms you could define it as like a separate industry team. In addition to the sector knowledge, they bring all the input what's happening on the geopolitical side into the discussions and helping our clients to take the decisions.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:22:22]:

That's fantastic. Well Klaus, I want to stay with you but I want to shift gears in terms of topics. We'd love to bring this to the M and A activity discussion. We've heard a lot that M and A is rebounding. I think we've seen it in certain sectors very visibly. But could you tell us what specific trends you're observing in the M and A landscape and how financial sponsors are adapting their strategies in response to that?

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:22:45]:

Thank you, Chris. Yeah, we have really seen a strong rebound in M and a activity in 2025. And as our CEO Peter Orszak has summarized it nicely, we have just published not only the geopolitical outlook, we also published detailed our detailed thoughts on M and A outlook and he put it nicely. We're coming off a year where global M and A volume has grown by 40% and the clear message is the momentum is carrying on in the new year. This momentum is we see it not only on the sponsors side, we see it also on the corporate side and there are a couple of KPIs which are relevant here. For example, on the sponsor side, Adam and I we are getting our weekly KPIs where we see we have been invited for sell side pitches or mandate wins. And this has been going up since summer. So more sponsors deciding on exit.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:23:37]:

A second factor is the secondary markets. Adam mentioned the topic of incarnation. Funds had a strong pickup of volume so there's a strong demand from secondary investors to participate in situations. And on the other hand we see a reopening on the IPO market both in the US and in Europe. Paired with of course the ongoing DPI pressures. This kind of factors have helped actually that the valuations are converging and getting closer to the marks. And finally, don't forget the financial sponsors do still sit on around $2.6 trillion of tri powder, which of course based on the latest survey we did with a lot of CLPs, the LPs want the sponsors to put them to play. So this will also help the sponsor market.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:24:26]:

So in sum, Adam and I and we as a team, quite bullish about the outlook what's happening with sponsor M and a in 2026. And of course to answer your second question, what are the trends we are seeing here? Interestingly, in addition to the normal sponsor exit, we're seeing two trends which are helping sponsors. Number one, there is an increase in the activity of public to private. Sponsors are taking listed companies private. And secondly in corporate carve outs, let me start perhaps with the P2PS. We continue to see here also a strong pickup both in Europe and the US and we expect this to continue. But to quantify it with numbers, only last year in the US the PTP activity has been up around 40% and that's back to 2007 level based on our analysis. And the other factor to keep in mind, while we are positive is continuous, especially in Europe.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:25:24]:

Valuation multiple still quite low or depressed as you would say it. And the financing markets are very strong. So we do expect Adam and Maya to expect this activity to further continue. This is a point on the public to private side. Quite similar is it is on the corporate carve outs, number one of course the KPIs. So Adam and I and the teams have been called in by corporates to say which sponsors could buy assets and could there the pitch activity or the KPIs has increased as well. Secondly and then corporates really are shaping more their portfolios. There are probably three reasons why we see this.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:26:05]:

Number one, the activist campaigns. And if you read our detailed study, activist campaigns have picked up so corporates need to act. Secondly, some corporates have been doing M and A. How do they finance it? They sell some of the known core assets and number three some sectors had actually to have to deleverage a bit more so they carving also out some of this asset. So in some activity Both on the P2P side and the car Ford side makes Adam and me quite positive that the activity further increases. And as we said at the beginning, as we cover the corporates on both sides at Atlantic, that gives us unique insights to help our clients.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:26:49]:

Excellent. Well it's good to hear that M and A activity is picking up and there are multiple reasons for Adam, anything that you want to add as it relates to M and A activity?

 

 Adam Cady [00:27:06]:

Yeah, sure. We'll throw out a couple things. I agree with Klaus. I think a lot of action in public to privates and carve outs those are like the headline themes. But I think the way sponsors are also exiting and monetizing assets continues to evolve pretty quickly. We're seeing a continued expansion of the toolkit for monetizations so whether that be a continuation fund or other secondaries, market options as well as preferred equity solutions to drive DPI and return capital. And we're also starting to see which I find very interesting and hopefully it's more to come. We're seeing private company stock for stock deals as a means to create pro forma business that has better exit prospects than each of the businesses standalone.

 

 Adam Cady [00:27:50]:

Obviously a key benefit of that trade is synergies which are nice but I think where people where sponsors are really focused away from the financial aspect of it is can those two companies together create a new business that has an improved financial and or strategic profile to help with the exit. So it's not just a bigger for bigger trade, it's not just a cost out trade. But it cannot reshape what the business is once together and have each other fill in the holes. So I think that's one to watch. And then I think these structures and deal archetypes are no longer alternatives. They're becoming core options for owners to create full or partial liquidity, retain exposure to assets that they want to continue owning or at least bridge to maybe a better IPO market or reshape their investment to maximize value in the medium term. So I just think depending on what the clients focus on, depending on what their goals, there's just I think a lot more ways to monetize assets and just straight up sell it all or take it public.

 

Chris Sparenberg [00:28:51]:

It's nice to see so much activity and evolution across the M and A space. And certainly as we take a look at private markets, something that we're focused on pretty intently here at S and P and also on the podcast, would love to talk about that continued evolution of private markets and the landscape by asking you, Adam, to take us through the insights that you've shared today and how you think the landscape of alternative asset managers continues to evolve for the next few years. We see all kinds of innovation in deals and structure types certainly in some of the firms and funds that are coming to market of late. What's the view from Lazard on everything happening there?

 

 Adam Cady [00:29:30]:

Yeah, I think you, I think the setup that you just went through is right is what are different ways to deploy capital than maybe historically would been middle of the fairway. Obviously there's investor demand for these GPs to satisfy that demand by creating strategies. Obviously we touched about, touched on it earlier in the discussion. Just around the first major wave outside of private equity was kind of expansion to private credit and obviously that's been around for a while now, but that was a blueprint around what's next. So the next wave is already underway. Many firms are expanding their strategies into dedicated secondaries funds, whether that's single asset or multi asset strategies. Within the secondaries market there's a huge bid and that whole market's growing infrastructure funds. We're seeing traditionally the large cap private equity get into the middle market with the middle market fund strategy because they were seeing a lot of times really nice businesses, businesses you can make money on as the owner but it just didn't fit the mandate of a really large transaction.

 

 Adam Cady [00:30:28]:

And then obviously hybrid capital people continue to get into, as I referenced earlier, the, the spicier end of the credit spectrum around hybrid capital solutions. And then our clients are all approaching this kind of strategic direction. The how part differently. Some firms are just greenfielding it rate, getting a team, raising this, raising capital and going after it, which obviously takes time. Other GPs are looking to acquire the capabilities and teams by buying other GPs to fill the holes in their portfolio. I think the next topic is geographic migration. We're seeing more creep whether it's historically a US based investing fund who didn't play outside the US now spending more time in Europe, whether that's boots on the ground, whether that's just by appointment only, going over if there's opportunities. But we're definitely seeing people going both ways across the Atlantic and broader remit than they've historically had.

 

 Adam Cady [00:31:28]:

And then I think just at the GP level itself Stake sales to long term private capital partners, GP IPOs, optimizing leverage up at the GP level. So just how they manage the upstairs part of their business and ownership and succession and all those things continues to be a topic, I think the common thread across all that with our clients, they want global insights, global coverage and strategic GP advice. And we at Lazard are definitely set up to go wherever our clients need to go around whatever options suit them on a global basis.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:32:03]:

And Adam, one follow up to that is just do you see that your clients are expanding more geographically because they might have a sweet spot that they've really been able to exploit, do a really good job in one particular area and now they want to take that and see if they can do the same thing in another geographical area. Or do you think that it's more so being more exploratory and knowing that markets behave differently but nonetheless there should be some opportunities in another geographical area?

 

 Adam Cady [00:32:45]:

Yeah, good question. I think the final piece is some people who've historically focused domestically who are looking in Europe to expand existing platforms. So I think those folks are on the hunt overseas or vice versa. Europe to us. Klaus and I are seeing a big theme around someone who's historically domestically focused on needs to get into bigger markets or incremental markets. And so they gotta put some boots in the ground to go find those opportunities. And usually they start with established portfolio companies they have and then use the new market to find accretive synergistic acquisitions.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:33:20]:

For that platform to make all sorts of reasons for the continued evolution within private markets for sure. And with that, Klaus, obviously there's a ton going on as we've just talked about through this episode, but curious how you keep a sense of balance in your day to day.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:33:42]:

Thank you. It's a very good question. First, Adam and I really operate as true global partners and we operate hand in hand. So what does it mean? There are no politics between us. We divide and conquer and we run this platform, as Adam said at the beginning, with only one goal. We want to be the premier global financial sponsor house for the clients on a global level. And that's our goal. What does it mean on a practical level? I travel to the US probably once a month where I meet clients together with Adam and the team, where to meet the colleagues, both the sector partners and also product partners.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:34:24]:

And of course Adam is doing the same. He's spending also time in Europe. It's intense, but it's also exciting. I've been doing it now for more than 30 years. It's also fun what we are doing. So we have the shared mission. We're surrounded by the incredible colleagues as Adam put it at the beginning, both in our team side but also across the firm. And of course we love to serve our clients right.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:34:52]:

And I think that's really that key, really loving what you do and focusing on your clients and finding the right way to work with them. And also Adam as your partner I think is fantastic. Adam, and same question to you, how do you keep a sense of balance?

 

 Adam Cady [00:35:14]:

Yeah, look, I think the divide and conquer approach with Klaus, yeah, we travel across the pond, but day in, day out we're close to our clients and close to our teams in our respective geographies so that that makes it more manageable. And look, it's a lot of work, but I think there's work and there's having fun being excited about building something here within obviously a firm with rich heritage and been around 175plus years and providing clients with objective and trusted advice. So you have all that backbone of what's been in existence for a long time. But we're really bringing to life our opportunity set within the financial sponsor community and that's super exciting to be able to architect that with Klaus.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:35:57]:

Absolutely. Well, thank you both. Klaus, Adam, this has been terrific. Great content and we really appreciate having you Both on Private Markets360.

 

 Adam Cady [00:36:10]:

Awesome. Thanks for having us. Appreciate your time.

 

Klaus H. Hessberger [00:36:12]:

Thank you both.

 

Jocelyn Lewis [00:36:13]:

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Private Markets360. We hope you enjoyed our conversation with Adam and Klaus, global co heads of financial sponsors at Lazard. Today, Adam and Klaus share valuable insights into Lazard's focus on the private markets, the impact of geopolitical risks and the increasing levels of M and A activity and the evolving landscape of alternative asset managers. Their perspectives on diversification and strategic adaptability provided key takeaways for investors and navigating today's complexities. And if you found this episode insightful, please subscribe to Private Markets 360 for more expert discussions on private investments. And thank you again, Klaus and Adam for your contributions and to our listeners for tuning in. Until next time.