NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Lazard, the investment bank led by Bruce Wasserstein, said third-quarter earnings more than doubled to a record, beating most analysts' estimates, on higher fees for mergers and acquisitions advice and money management.

Profit advanced to $83.6 million, or 73 cents a share, from $35 million, or 34 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based company said in a statement. Estimates from five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg ranged from 60 cents to 73 cents.

Lazard's focus on take-over advice and fund management enabled the company to avoid writedowns on subprime mortgage bonds and leveraged loans that caused losses at larger competitors such as UBS and Merrill Lynch & Co.

Lazard completed assignments including TXU Corporation's $45 billion sale to buyout firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and TPG during the quarter, boosting M&A fees 93 percent from a year earlier.

"Lazard continues to execute as planned in both the financial advisory and asset-management businesses," William Tanona, an analyst at Goldman Sachs Group who recommends buying the stock, wrote. "Given the credit concerns of the brokerage group, Lazard is a safe haven for investors."

Lazard's shares rose 53 cents, or one percent, to $49.77 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading early yesterday after rising as high as $52.89. The stock has gained 5.3 percent this year, outperforming competitors such as Evercore Partners and Greenhill & Co.

"We're obviously not as impacted as other firms are by what's happening in the credit markets," Lazard vice chairman Steven Golub said in a telephone interview. "Our list of pending transactions is still pretty long."

Lazard yesterday listed 31 transactions it's working on that haven't yet been completed. They include Gaz de France SA's 37.8 billion euro ($54.6 billion) merger with Suez SA and Coles Group's A$18 billion ($16.6 billion) sale to Wesfarmers. Advisory firms like Lazard typically book most of their revenue when a transaction is completed.

"Lazard's pipeline of deals continues to be solid," Michael Hecht, an analyst at Bank of America who recommends buying the stock, said in a note to investors. At the current share price, Lazard is "an excellent opportunity to buy a premier global M&A franchise."

The total value of mergers and acquisitions announced this year surpassed last year's $3.55 trillion record this week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Corporate buyers and sovereign investment funds from the Gulf states and China are snapping up targets, making up for a decline in deals involving buyout firms.

During the third quarter, Lazard completed advising on $86 billion of takeovers, an increase from $59.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

"They're holding up quite well," David Killian, who helps manage $750 million, including Lazard shares, for Stoneridge Investment Partners in Malvern, Pennsylvania, said before the earnings release. "Their pipeline is still very strong."

Lazard's revenue from takeover advice climbed to $295.4 million from $153.2 million a year earlier. The company also earned $56.2 million from financial restructuring — or advising bankrupt or near-bankrupt companies — compared with $15.6 million a year earlier.

Asset-management revenue rose 42 percent to $177.5 million in the quarter from $124.9 million in the period last year, the company said. Average assets under management advanced 44 percent to $138.7 billion from $96.6 billion a year earlier. Net inflows in the third quarter totaled $3.3 billion, a faster pace than the $2.6 billion that came in during the second quarter.

About 85 percent of Lazard's assets under management are in equities, Golub said. While fixed-income markets have been rocked by losses on mortgage-backed securities and high-yield loans this year, most of the world's equity indexes have gained.

"Our financial advisory and asset management businesses each achieved record outcomes," Wasserstein, Lazard's chairman and chief executive officer, said in the statement. "We have limited exposure to the volatile credit market environment."

Lazard's current and former employees own more than half of the firm through a holding company called LAZ-MD. Because the stakes owned by employees can be converted into common stock, the company reports earnings as though the stakes were fully exchanged instead of treating them as minority interest.

Without making those adjustments, net income tripled to $40.3 million, or 73 cents a share, from $13.2 million, or 34 cents a share, a year earlier.

Lazard's profit was the highest for any third quarter, although the firm has reported higher profit in other quarters.

Wasserstein, a former corporate lawyer, rose to the top ranks of merger advisers during the 1980s, when he helped run investment banking at First Boston, now part of Credit Suisse. In 1988, he left with Joseph Perella to found Wasserstein, Perella & Co., an advisory firm that he sold to Germany's Dresdner Bank AG for $1.56 billion in January 2001.

Michel David-Weill, a descendant of Lazard's founding family, hired Wasserstein in 2001 to revive the company. Wasserstein recruited more bankers and, over David-Weill's objections, sold shares in the firm to the public for the first time in May 2005 for $25 each.