City People

LAZARDS HAS always been a peculiar beast, consisting of threeindependent merchant banks in Paris, London and New York linkedtogether by a common family history.

No longer. Michel David-Weill, chairman of Lazard Partners and amember of the original founding family, announced last week that hehad decided to merge the banks into one. He will continue to headthe whole lot, as chairman of a global executive committee.

Mr David-Weill provided an explanation of the historic move in aninterview with the French newspaper Le Figaro yesterday. He said:"One of the advantages of this new organisation is to facilitate theemergence of people from within Lazards capable of succeeding me."Mr David-Weill denied that he will regret the passing of controlof the bank from family hands."More than a family legitimacy, one must obtain a consensus. WhenI arrived {at Lazards} in 1977 in New York, it was at the behest ofthe bank. But I had to prove my capacities."The justification that I was the heir came well after that," hesaid. Speculating on his successor, he adds: "One day someone willemerge from the group. It will then be obvious." He doesn't saywhen, though.uRICHARD DAVEY retires as executive vice chairman of the corporatefinance division of NM Rothschild today, and he says his plans forretirement are "not to do much".He's certainly had his hands full recently, advising Royal & SunAlliance on how to react to strong rumours of a bid from CGU. MrDavey, 50, will be unable to relax completely even when he's retired,however. He has just joined Dixon's Internet service Freeserve as anon executive director.A specialist in financial services and insurance, Mr Davey is alsoa non-exec at Scottish Widows - although for how much longer mustdepend on whether Lloyds TSB's bid for the insurer succeeds. Whoknows, perhaps Mr Davey will wind up on the Lloyds TSB board.This could get in the way of his only other ambition on retirement- to qualify as a yacht master. He is already a keen sailor and ownshis own boat.Mr Davey is described by colleagues as "very popular in the firm",as was shown on Monday night when more than 150 guests showed up tohis leaving do at the Innholders Hall in the City.He spent most of his career with Rothschilds, apart from a shortspell with Merrill Lynch in the 1980s, having started off a decadeearlier with Slater Walker.uBRITISH AIRWAYS has hit upon a brilliant scheme to prove that itsaircraft will be immune from the millennium bug.Some fear that the inability of on-board computers to deal withthe year 2000 date will cause aircraft to fall from the sky. Inorder to still such fears, BA is flying a jetload of journalists fromHeathrow to Nice for lunch next Monday.Half-way through the flight the crew will turn all the aircraft'scomputers to midnight 31 December. After lunch, the exercise will berepeated on the way back to London.The most senior BA staff member on the flight will be MikeJeffrey, director of flight crew. Chief Executive Bob Ayling and hisfellow board members will remain on terra firma.uTHE CONFIRMATION yesterday that Frank Newman, the chief executiveofficer of Bankers Trust and co-chairman of Deutsche Bank, will beleaving the combined group following the acquisition of BT hasprompted a sigh of relief from both banks, I hear.Mr Newman, a former deputy secretary to the Treasury in the US,was brought in by BT in the mid-1990s to stabilise the investmentbank following a series of damaging derivatives scandals.Despite proving a safe pair of hands, his reign was not a popularone, I hear, not least because of the influence wielded within BT byMr Newman's wife Lizbeth, who some critics rather unkindly dubbed"the Imelda Marcos of Bankers Trust".Much of the work of an investment bank boss is social, pressingthe flesh with local heads of state around the world. It was in thisarena that Lizbeth Newman made her presence felt, helping out withthe lavish entertaining of clients.All good things come to an end and following the Deutscheacquisition Lizbeth was banned from the corporate jet.At least Mr Newman will be able to soften the blow with hisrumoured $100m payoff - although his five-year contract onlystipulates a payoff of a mere $55m. Very hard times indeed.