With earnings like this, you certainly understand why Goldman Sachs sought to get out from underneath the U.S. government and TARP so quickly a month or so ago. The investment bank earlier reported second quarter earnings of $3.44 billion. It had record net quarterly revenues of revenues of $13.76 billion. Equity underwriting set records. Debt underwriting was strong (municipal bonds helped drive that). And it posted record quarterly net in fixed income,currency and commodities trading. But there was at least one area that was a drag, if one can consider anything dragging down the kind of numbers the firm posted.
Goldman said it lost $499 million connected to real estate in its principal investments portfolio, a portfolio that overall had net revenue of $811 million for the quarter. The positive numbers were driven by a gain of $941 million on its sale of Industrial & Commercial Bank of China shares and another $343 million gain from “corporate principal investments.”
Goldman’s portfolio still holds about $1.855 billion of real estate in its principal investments category – but that’s a smal fraction of the $19.2 billion total portfolio.
Jim Brown
July 14, 2009
I am a seasoned senior manager with credentials including the world’s greatest banks. How do I get a job with Goldman?