NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Lazard Ltd. awarded chairman and chief executive officer Bruce Wasserstein $18 million in restricted shares, 80 percent more than a year earlier, after the stock rose 48 percent in 2006, according to a federal filing.Wasserstein, 59, received 359,425 shares on January 23, when the stock closed at $50.08, the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission said. He can sell half of the shares on March 31, 2010, and the other half a year later, the filing said.

Lazard shares have doubled since Wasserstein took the company public in May 2005, outpacing the 81 percent gain in the Amex Securities Broker/Dealer Index over the same period. The investment bank's profit for the first nine months of 2006 rose 31 percent from a year earlier as it made more money from takeover advice and fund management. Full-year results are scheduled to be reported on February 7.

"The bottom line is he's delivering for shareholders," said Andrew Corn, CEO of Clear Asset Management in New York, which doesn't currently own Lazard stock. "Any time someone's paid in stock I always feel better, as long as it is aligned with performance."

Lazard didn't disclose any other components of Wasserstein's compensation in yesterday's filing. Last year he got $10 million in restricted stock and a $4.2 million salary.

Wasserstein and his family already own stock and stock rights worth about $585 million at the current share price, according to a November filing. His 1.44 million shares of common stock make him the sixth-largest holder of the publicly traded stock, according to Bloomberg data.

Lazard's current and former managing directors own more than half of the firm through a holding company formed at the time of the initial public offering. Their stakes in that holding company are exchangeable over time into common stock.

Lazard filings today also showed that vice-chairman Steven Golub was granted 141,773 restricted shares worth about $7.1 million, president Charles Ward received 19,968 restricted shares valued at about $1 million, and General Counsel Scott Hoffman got 12,480 restricted shares worth about $625,000. Chief financial officer Michael Castellano was awarded 8,986 restricted shares, valued at about $450,000.

Judi Mackey, a spokeswoman for Lazard in New York, declined to comment beyond the contents of the filings.