Apollo and Lazard to Form Strategic Partnership in Europe.

LONDON -- Apollo Management, L.P. ("Apollo") and Lazard Group, LLC ("Lazard") announced today their intention to form a strategic partnership for private equity investments in Europe. The strategic partnership represents an important milestone in enhancing the global operations of both firms as they expand their private equity presence in important international markets.

Investment professionals from Lazard and Apollo will work closely together to pursue investment opportunities in Europe. The strategic partnership will leverage both Lazard's European presence and history of advising on merger and acquisitions transactions, and Apollo's strong track record in private equity. Separately, Apollo and Lazard will continue to work with other financial advisory and private equity firms, respectively, in the ordinary course of business.

About Apollo

Apollo is an affiliate of Apollo Global Management, LLC, a leading global alternative asset manager with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Singapore, Frankfurt and Paris. Apollo Global Management, LLC has assets under management in excess of $40 billion in private equity, hedge funds, distressed debt and mezzanine funds invested across a core group of industries where it has considerable knowledge and resources.

About Lazard

Lazard Ltd (NYSE: LAZ), one of the world's preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms, operates from 40 cities across 23 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America. With origins dating back to 1848, the firm provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and capital raising, as well as asset management services to corporations, partnerships, institutions, governments, and individuals. For more information on Lazard, please visit www.lazard.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 or by the Securities and Exchange Commission in its rules, regulations and releases. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may", "might", "will", "should", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "potential" or "continue", and the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts but instead represent only our belief regarding future results, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of our control. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

These factors include, but are not limited to, those discussed in Lazard's Annual Report on Form 10-K under Item 1A "Risk Factors," and also disclosed from time to time by Lazard in reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K including the following:

* A decline in general economic conditions or the global financial markets;

* Losses caused by financial or other problems experienced by third parties;

* Losses due to unidentified or unanticipated risks;

* Loss of key personnel;

* Changes in the regulatory environment;

* A lack of liquidity, i.e., ready access to funds, for use in our businesses; and

* Competitive pressure.

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