(by Mark Riley)

The world’s top investment bank Lazard LCC is said to postpone its initial public offering in order to force bank’s partners to sign for the IPO.

The main debate is between Lazard Chairman Michel David- Weill and the head of Lazard Bruce Wasserstein. Wasserstein craves for the initial public offering to get the capital to expand the company. On the other hand, Mr. David- Weill opposes IPO as he can lose control over it.

On a board meeting in Paris yesterday, two chiefs had strong row over the issue as Wasserstein still lacks some key signatures from Lazard’s more than 160 partners.

``The bank is dependent on the key business getters and that’s what this is all about,’’ said John Tattersall, a partner in the financial-services division of PricewaterhouseCoopers in London.

Lazard will probably be valued at around $3 billion, though people say Michel David- Weill wants to reach $4 billion record by selling his 9% stake in the company.

Last year before $290 million payments to the partners, company’s profit dropped to $249 million from 2002 $287 million, people say.