Lazard will take a $60m (€47m) pre-tax charge this year to cover the cost of redeploying staff to growth areas such as restructuring, which began to live up to its billing as a key future revenue driver – with a surge in fourth-quarter business that made it the company’s most resilient business last year.

Net profits at Lazard halved to $61.2m in the fourth quarter, and dropped more than a third to $322.7m for the full year, with restructuring business holding up well compared with a fall in operating revenues from merger and acquisition and strategic advisory work, corporate finance and asset management, according to the firm's annual results published today.