Goldman Sachs files with SEC for stock offering
WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS - news) on
Monday filed with U.S. regulators to go public, ending its 129-year history as a private
investment banking firm.
The long-awaited registration statement, however, offered few clues to satisfy Wall
Street's keen interest in Goldman's going public.
Goldman's partners two months ago supported floating a 10-15 percent stake in the
firm and ratified the plan earlier this month. Partners had voted against going public
many times in the past, but this time were swayed by a red-hot market for financial
services stocks and the need for Goldman to boost its capital base to better compete
with growing rivals such as Merrill Lynch and Co Inc (MER - news).
Monday's filing, however, did not detail how many shares the firm will sell, the price of
the shares, or what stake in the firm they represent. Nor did it outline --as is usual-- the
salaries and exact equity stakes of its top executives. It also omitted how much stock it
intends to award to key employees and its rank-and-file workers.
The statement did list six people who own five percent of the firm's equity, among whom
are Goldman's co-chief executives, Jon Corzine and Henry Paulson. The regulatory
filing also gave some insights into Goldman's finances, which it jealously guarded when it
was a partnership.
In the first half of the year, Goldman earned a pretax profit of $2.1 billion on
revenues of $5.5 billion. Proprietary trading contributed 47 percent to
Goldman's revenues, or $2.6 billion. Investment banking fees added $1.6 billion
in revenues and asset management and securities services another $1.3 billion.
Goldman had about $165 billion in client assets under management at the end of
May, up from $117 billion a year ago. The firm doled out $2,6 billion to its
11,440 employees in the six months ended May 31, up from $1.5 billion a year
ago.
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