NEW YORK (Bloomberg) ? Lazard Ltd., the investment bank led by Bruce Wasserstein, may report tomorrow that second-quarter earnings rose 66 percent as the firm arranged a larger share of the world?s takeovers.

Profit probably climbed to about $53 million, or 50 cents a share, from $32 million, or 32 cents, a year earlier, according to the average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Estimates range from 48 cents to 53 cents a share.

Bermuda-based Lazard, which generates about two-thirds of its revenue from advising companies, is among the biggest beneficiaries of the record year for mergers and acquisitions. The firm almost doubled its share of M&A to 16 percent, working on $89 billion of deals that closed in the second quarter. Lazard shares have dropped since reaching a peak in May, partly on concern that stock-market declines would hurt its money-management unit.

?We?re expecting pretty good growth in the investment bank,? said Eric Fitzwater, a senior analyst at SNL Financial LLC, a research firm in Charlottesville, Virginia, that doesn?t publish stock recommendations or earnings forecasts. ?The M&A side is going to offset any shortcomings in asset management.?

Two of Lazard?s biggest deals completed during the second quarter were Supervalu Inc.?s $15.9 billion purchase of Albertson?s Inc. and Lincoln National Corp.?s $8.2 billion takeover of Jefferson-Pilot Corp., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Lazard advised Supervalu and Jefferson-Pilot. The firm worked on $36.5 billion of completed M&A transactions in the same period in 2005.

While Lazard shares have dropped 22 percent from their all- time high May 10, the stock has gained 51 percent since Wasserstein took the firm public in May 2005. Over the same 14 months, the Amex Securities Broker/Dealer Index has risen 50 percent. Lazard shares fell $1.25, or 3.2 percent, to $37.80 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 4:19 p.m.

Net revenue at the 158-year-old firm probably climbed 15 percent to $357 million in the second quarter from $310 million a year earlier, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Daniel Harris said in a July 13 research note.

?Lazard?s M&A revenue are as tied to the health of the broader M&A market,? wrote Harris, who rates the stock ?neutral.? ?We expect strength in advisory to benefit Lazard, potentially more than peers, over the next few quarters.?

Wasserstein, 58, joined Lazard in 2001, less than a year after selling his own firm, Wasserstein, Perella & Co., to Dresdner Bank AG for $1.56 billion.

After hiring top bankers including Charles Ward from Credit Suisse Group and Morgan Stanley?s Gary Parr, Wasserstein overcame the objections of Lazard?s founding family to sell shares to the public.