By Todd Gillespie | Updated on Jun 14, 2026 at 05:47 PM
Investment bank Lazard Inc. is making a late bid to dislodge rival Centerview Partners as Venezuela’s financial adviser, offering to oversee one of the largest-ever sovereign debt restructurings for a sharply lower fee.
In a letter sent Friday to interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez, Lazard proposed a fee of $25 million, according to a copy seen by Bloomberg. The offer is a fraction of the sum of at least $150 million Centerview was negotiating with the government as recently as last month, when it was announced as Venezuela’s sole financial adviser.
If agreed upon, Centerview’s proposed fee, reported by Bloomberg News on Thursday, would be by far the largest of all time for a sovereign debt rework.
“At a time when Venezuela faces extraordinary economic and financial challenges, we believe that every public dollar should be deployed as efficiently as possible,” Lazard’s top sovereign advisory banker Pierre Cailleteau wrote in the letter.
A spokesperson for the firm declined to comment. A representative for the Venezuelan government didn’t reply to messages.
Lazard’s last-minute offer highlights the extraordinary stakes surrounding Venezuela’s restructuring, a mandate coveted by the world’s top sovereign debt advisers because of its potential fees and the prestige that comes with handling a deal of its magnitude. In making the bid, Lazard is taking on two of its own former bankers, Hamouda Chekir and Matthieu Pigasse, who now lead Centerview’s advisory division in France.
Venezuela last month announced Centerview would lead the process to rework bonds, loans, arbitration awards and other claims estimated at between $150 billion and $200 billion. Restoring access to international capital markets is central to its efforts to rebuild an economy battered by years of hyperinflation, collapsing oil output and mass migration.
Read More: Centerview, Venezuela Discussed $150 Million Fee for Debt Rework
According to a draft contract seen by Bloomberg, Centerview had discussed a $750,000 monthly retainer and success fee of 0.1% of the total debt amount restructured, equating to a price of about $150 million to $200 million.
A spokesman for Centerview, a Wall Street boutique founded by Blair Effron and Robert Pruzan, said Thursday that its contract with Venezuela had not been finalized and the figures reported by Bloomberg “vastly overstate the expected terms” of the deal.
In a statement released Sunday, the firm emphasized that point again. “Centerview won the Venezuela mandate over other firms that pitched because of our world-leading experience and expertise in sovereign advisory,” the firm said. “The terms of our engagement will be based on market rates, and speculation to the contrary is false.”
At $25 million, Lazard is matching the sum it was paid to advise Greece more than a decade ago on its more than $200 billion of debt, the largest sovereign restructuring in history.
In the letter to Rodríguez, Lazard said its fee would be “structured in a manner aligned with the successful completion of the engagement,” without detailing a monthly retainer.
“Most importantly, we believe that a successful restructuring should maximize the resources available for the Venezuelan people and support the country’s economic renewal,” Cailleteau wrote.