Goldman Sachs, which bought Lazard to market earlier this month, spent up to $60m (€48m) supporting the issue on the first day of trading and a further $15.8m over the following six days which gave it a stake of over 10%.

Shares in Lazard were priced at $25 each, the bottom of its expected range, fell to a discount in the opening minutes of trading and closed down 4% on the day. The are now 17% below the issue price.