BANKING

LAZARD TO RAISE $1.3 BILLION FROM IPO, BANK FINANCING

Lazard LLC, the privately held investment banking partnership run by Bruce Wasserstein, said it plans to raise at least $1.3 billion from an initial public offering and other financing to pay Chairman Michel David-Weill and his partners.

Lazard said in December that it would raise $850 million in an IPO. Mr. David-Weill held up the transaction until he and his allies were promised $1.62 billion in cash for their controlling stake. Lazard said yesterday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it’s getting $200 million from French bank Ixis and would seek $250 million from selling convertible equity units. The bank said it may also raise more money through debt financing.

Mr. Wasserstein must complete the IPO by the end of 2005 or resign.

– Bloomberg News

ENERGY

GOLDMAN TO BUY ZILKHA RENEWABLE, EXPAND IN WIND POWER

Goldman Sachs Group, the world’s third-biggest securities firm by capital, agreed to buy Zilkha Renewable Energy, a developer of wind power projects, to expand its electricity-generating business.

Zilkha, owned by Selim Zilkha and his son Michael, has interests in two operating wind power projects and two larger wind farms under construction, Michael Skelly, Zilkha’s vice president of development, said in a telephone interview. The projects under construction would produce 350 megawatts of power, enough for about 280,000 average homes.

Goldman Sachs since 2003 has spent $1.2 billion and assumed $4.2 billion in debt to buy at least 30 power plants in America and the Dominican Republic, investments designed in part to help the firm’s energy traders make more money. The purchase of Zilkha, based in Houston, gives Goldman the ability to expand investments as state laws boost demand for renewable resources.

– Bloomberg News