Aim-listed companies looking for financial advisers will no longer be able to call on Lazard, which this week withdrew its services from London's junior market. However, they may find that some of the world's largest investment banks are willing to step in.

Lazard said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that it would no longer operate as a nominated adviser, or nomad, to Aim-traded companies. The advisory firm has had a small presence as a nomad over the past decade and leaves behind one client, Hutchison China Meditech, which this week named Panmure Gordon as its replacement.