The independent investment bank Lazard said on Thursday that its third-quarter profit jumped 44 percent as it continued to win large advisory assignments.
The company reported adjusted profit of $89 million, amounting to 67 cents a share. On average, analysts had expected the investment bank to earn 64 cents a share, according to estimates compiled by Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ.
That performance reflects the relatively healthy environment for corporate acquisitions that underpinned the three months that ended Sept. 30, with competitors like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley also buoyed by increased deal activity. But Lazard, as an independent firm with only two major lines of business — financial advisory and asset management — is often seen as a bellwether for the business of advising on mergers.
Lazard’s financial advisory arm reported a 24 percent rise in revenue, to $291.1 million, from the period a year earlier.
Among the transactions Lazard worked on that were announced during the third quarter were Burger King’s $11.4 billion acquisition of the Canadian chain Tim Hortons and Siemens’s $7.6 billion takeover of the oil services provider Dresser Rand. According to Kenneth M. Jacobs, Lazard’s chairman and chief executive, those deals represented the sweet spot for the firm: large, complex assignments.
“I think this environment plays to our strengths,” Mr. Jacobs said by telephone.
Transactions that were completed during the quarter, and thus earned Lazard the bulk of its advisory fees, included UNS Energy’s $4.3 billion sale to Fortis and AutoNavi’s $1.5 billion sale to the Alibaba Group of China.
The bank’s other major business, asset management, also performed well. The division reported a 16 percent increase in revenue, to $287.9 million, as both management fees and incentive fees rose. Helping the business was $2.6 billion in net inflows of assets during the quarter, as clients poured additional money into investments in emerging markets and international strategies.
Assets under management rose to $198 billion as of Sept. 30, 12 percent higher than at the same point last year.
Under generally accepted accounting principles, the firm’s profit was also $89 million, up 47 percent from a year-ago quarter, while total revenue was $581.7 million, up 16 percent. The firm’s shares rose 0.45 percent to close at $48.93 on Thursday.
Despite the positive results, Mr. Jacobs said the bank’s continued strong performance might rely in part on the overall stability of global markets, a belief that has been shaken by recent volatility. If those gyrations prove short-lived, he said, both the deal advisory and asset management businesses should continue to prosper.