WALL STREET

LAZARD MAY GO PUBLIC

Lazard head Bruce Wasserstein is close to launching a plan that would buy out Lazard Chairman Michel David-Weill and a group of older, non-working Lazard partners, people familiar with the matter said.

The plan, described in a meeting to New York partners Friday, would involve a Lazard IPO of the company’s asset-management and merger-advisory businesses, as well as the assumption of new debt. The proceeds from both would be used by Mr. Wasserstein and the bank’s working partners to fund the buyout, these people add. Many details still need to be finalized, say people familiar with the matter, and a final decision about the plan has still yet to be made. Nonetheless, the meeting signals Lazard’s likely course after months of speculation about the boutique investment bank. A Lazard spokesman declined to comment.

– Dow Jones Newswires

NATIONAL

HURRICANE JEANNE COULD COST UP TO $14 BILLION

Hurricane Jeanne, which slammed into Florida’s Atlantic coast overnight, may cost insurers $6 billion to $14 billion, rivaling Hurricane Charley as the most expensive storm of the season, storm modeler Eqecat Inc. said. Estimates rose from yesterday’s $4 billion to $7 billion as Jeanne traveled farther west-northwest than predicted toward the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area, said a senior vice president at Eqecat, Tom Larsen.

“This one looks to be the worst that has struck Florida this year,” said Mr. Larsen, whose Oakland, Calif.-based company uses computer models to estimate insurance claims. “It’s either first or second.”

Insurers already face $14 billion to $17 billion of losses from hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Ivan, with Charley’s claims expected to be about $6.5 billion. It is the first time in Florida history that four hurricanes have hit the state in the same year.

– Bloomberg News

WELLS FARGO, GOLDMAN SACHS SELL $22 BILLION IN BONDS

Wells Fargo & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. led companies that sold $21.7 billion of bonds in America last week as borrowing costs at the lowest levels in five months enticed banks and securities firms to issue debt. Wells Fargo, the nation’s biggest mortgage lender and fourth-largest bank, sold $3.5 billion of three-year floating-rate notes. Goldman Sachs, the third largest American securities firm, sold $1.25 billion of 10-year fixed-rate notes and $900 million of 10-year floating-rate notes.

– Bloomberg News

FOREIGN

BRITAIN’S BROWN CHALLENGES AMERICA ON DEBT RELIEF

Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown pledged to spend $180 million a year relieving the debts of 30 of the world’s poorest nations, challenging America to chip in as well. Speaking on the sidelines of the ruling Labor Party’s annual conference in Brighton, England, Mr. Brown said Britain will pay its share of interest due on debts owed by nations including Bolivia, Ethiopia, and Mali to the World Bank and African Development Bank.

“We do this alone today, but I urge other countries to follow,” Mr. Brown said in a statement released by the Department for International Development. “We will pay our share of the multilateral debt repayments.”

Mr. Brown’s plan puts Britain in conflict with America over how to fund debt relief programs that already have forgiven $70 billion in loans owed by 27 of the world’s poorest countries.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial nations will discuss the matter in Washington later this week. America has proposed that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund pay for debt relief. Mr. Brown wants rich industrial nations to put up the cash, leaving the World Bank funds free for other poverty alleviation programs.

– Bloomberg News