Cyrus Kapadia

Cyrus Kapadia is Chief Executive Officer of Lazard’s UK Investment Banking business. His role is to lead Lazard’s UK advisory business across mergers, acquisitions and all aspects of capital market management.

Lazard is the world's largest independent investment bank, operating across 27 different countries. As the UK chief executive based in London, Mr Kapadia is the head of one of Lazard’s three principal offices, and one of its largest in terms of staffing numbers. The other two main offices are in Paris and New York. Lazard provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, strategy, capital structure and restructure, corporate finance, and asset management services, with a particular strength in private equity and mid-market transactions. It regularly advises on multi-billion dollar transactions, many of which Mr Kapadia has been personally influential in.

Mr Kapadia started his CEO role in 2019. His succession to the role was something of a leadership change-up for Lazard; he replaced William Rucker, who became Lazard’s UK chairman. The former chair, Archie Norman, moved into being a special advisor to Lazard’s CEO.

Before becoming UK chief executive, Mr Kapadia was Managing Director and Deputy Head of Lazard’s UK Investment Banking for 23 years. He was also appointed Lazard’s Vice Chairman of Global Investment Banking in 2018. His specialty is in technology, media and telecommunications (TMT), where he built Lazard’s London TMT team, and he has extensive experience in the Investment Banking Division. Among his biggest transactions is his work advising chip designing firm ARM Holdings on a £24 billion takeover by Japanese tech company SoftBank in 2016.

Mr Kapadia has worked with clients across a wide range of industries, advising principally on corporate finance, mergers, and acquisitions. As UK CEO, he continues to play an active role in leading large transactions across the TMT sector and advising some of Lazard’s most significant clients.

Mr Kapadia has provided advice to some of the UK’s largest companies including BT Group, ARM Holdings, Tui Travel, ASDA, Carillion, Premier Farnell, Debenhams, Aveva Software, Paysafe, and B&M Retail, as well as private equity sponsors both in the UK and abroad. He has further experience with sponsor-related transactions.

As CEO of Lazard’s UK arm, he continues to play an active role in TMT, advising many of the bank’s most important clients and leading large transactions in the sector. He made an impressive start to his role as CEO as he advised on two big transactions in his first months - Cellnex Telecom’s £2 billion purchase of Arqiva’s telecoms business, and private equity fund Thoma Bravo’s £3 billion takeover of cybersecurity firm Sophos.

Mr Kapadia is a member of the Corporate Partnerships Board of the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity and the Bookmark Reading Charity, which pairs struggling young students with volunteers to help improve their reading ability. He joined Lazard in 1997 as a chartered accountant from Price Waterhouse.