Lazard insiders not including Bruce Wasserstein are selling stock

Are Lazard insiders (excluding Bruce Wasserstein) selling a boatload of stock for diversification purposes (the usual response) or are they hinting that there may be trouble brewing?

Senior executives at Lazard will sell a $317m stake in the investment bank this month through a secondary offering of common stock, writes Julie MacIntosh in New York . The $317m stake makes up one eighth of their holding.

Kenneth Jacobs, the firm's North American banking head, will sell shares valued at $15m, while its vice chairman, Steven Golub, will sell more than $13m of shares. Charles Ward III, Marcus Agius, Gary Parr and Jeffrey Rosen, all of whom own a stake of just more than 1 per cent of the firm, will each sell $11.6m of shares.

Bruce Wasserstein, chairman and chief executive, will not sell shares. He and his family trusts own 1.91m shares of Lazard common stock as well as exchangeable rights for another 9.96m shares.

Lazard executives to sell part-stake - Financial Times