Lazard Ltd. announced that net income for the first quarter ended March 31, increased 5% to US$55 million from US$52.5 million for the first quarter of 2006.

Operating revenue increased 11% to US$388.2 million compared to US$351.1 million for the first quarter of 2006, resulting primarily from growth in the asset management business. For the first quarter of 2007 compared to the first quarter of 2006, asset management revenue increased 23%.

“We have made impressive achievements in our asset management business with record assets under management of US$124.9 billion and record quarterly positive net inflows, with US$11.6 billion in new assets in the quarter. Our three-year plan for asset management has been a success and progress is continuing,” said Bruce Wasserstein, chairman and CEO of Lazard.

“In our financial advisory business, we continue to serve as independent, strategic advisors on some of the most important cross-border, global and domestic M&A and restructuring assignments around the world. We are actively pursuing expanding financial advisory by geography and adjacent businesses through acquisitions, investments and new hires,” he added. “We also are actively pursuing expansion of our asset management business through acquisitions, new investment products, including merchant banking investments, making new hires of individuals and teams, and upgrading our current platforms. We continue to invest for future growth and feel that the firm is well positioned.”

“Our results are best measured on an annual basis rather than on any single quarter,” added Steven Golub, Lazard’s vice chairman. “This year our backlog for completion of transactions seems to be weighted toward the second half of the year. We continue to focus on controlling costs. The increase in our non-compensation expense was impacted by, among other factors, one-time cost recoveries in the first quarter of 2006. We remain confident that the operating leverage in our business model will continue to yield long-term positive results.”