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Thursday, 16 July 2009 20:41 |
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An update of news this week about Goldman Sachs, its record quarterly profits, its employee compensation and an update on the alleged market manipulation.
Bloomberg: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. posted record earnings as revenue from trading and stock underwriting reached all-time highs less than a year after the firm took $10 billion in U.S. rescue funds. Second-quarter net income was $3.44 billion, or $4.93 a share, the New York-based bank said today in a statement. That surpassed the $3.65 per-share average estimate of 22 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg and was 65 percent higher than last year’s second quarter.
ZeroHedge: As if anyone expected less than one of the most ridiculous beats ever. Some amusing Q1 over Q2 comparisons:
- Equity Underwriting: $48 million vs $736 million
- Equities Trading (not commissions): $1,027 vs $2,157 million
- Total Trading and Principal Investments: $5,706 vs $9.322 million
- ICBC: ($151) vs $948 million
Marketwatch: "Bank regulators have their hands full with other deteriorating bank situations and, for the time being, seem content to let Goldman do what it's always done." [..] Goldman still doesn't report quarterly results like other large bank holding companies. For instance, the firm doesn't disclose a full balance sheet in its earnings release or provide detailed information on revenue and valuation marks on exposures, the analysts noted.
Telegraph: The upshot of these monster earnings is that Goldman's 29,400 staff are set to rake it in as never before. As if the credit crunch had never happened, the Goldmanites are on course this year for average pay, bonus and benefit packages of an eye-watering $770,000 – or £475,000 – per head. That's almost twice what President Obama earns.
Bloomberg: “No one in the U.S. or elsewhere can tolerate such a situation. Goldman Sachs wouldn’t exist had American taxpayers not come to its aid. To be drowning in dollars and bonus money today is utterly scandalous. It’s a problem the G-20 will have to deal with. Political leaders around the world are at the foot of a gigantic moral problem.” Failure to act on bankers’ pay and bonuses could lead to “major political problems,” Guaino said.
Reuters: After more than a week of silence, Goldman Sachs finally commented publicly on the alleged theft of computer codes by former programmer Sergey Aleynikov calling losses sustained as a result would be “very, very immaterial.”
Max Keiser:
See also our previous articles on this topic: Goldman Sachs' magic (III) Goldman Sachs' magic (II) Goldman Sachs' magic (I) Government Sachs is in control Did Goldman goose oil?
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Last Updated on Thursday, 16 July 2009 21:20 |
