Goldman Sachs Group

Type: Public (NYSE: GS)
Founded: 1869
Headquarters: New York, New York
Key people: Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman & CEO, Gary Cohn, President & COO
Industry: Finance and Insurance
Products: Investment Banking
Website: www.gs.com

General Information

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., or simply Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is one of the world's largest global investment banks. Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869, and is headquartered in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City at 85 Broad Street. Goldman Sachs has offices in leading financial centers such as New York City, London, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Frankfurt, Zürich, Paris, São Paulo, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Beijing, Mexico City, Singapore, Salt Lake City, Sydney, Dubai, Milan, Melbourne, Tokyo, Taipei, Moscow and Toronto.

Goldman Sachs acts as a financial advisor to some of the most important companies, largest governments, and wealthiest families in the world. It is a primary dealer in the U.S. Treasury securities market. Goldman Sachs offers its clients mergers & acquisitions advisory, provides underwriting services, engages in proprietary trading, invests in private equity deals, and also manages the wealth of affluent individuals and families.

Corporate Affairs

As of 2006, Goldman Sachs employed 26,500 people worldwide. It reported earnings of US$9.54 billion and record earnings per share of $19.69. It was reported that the average total compensation per employee in 2006 was US$622,000. However, this number represents the arithmetic mean of total compensation and is highly skewed upwards as several hundred of the top earners command the majority of the Bonus Pools, leaving the actual median that most employees earn well below this number. The current Chief Executive Officer is Lloyd C. Blankfein. The company ranks #1 in Annual Net Income when compared with 86 peers in the Investment Services sector.

Recently Goldman Sachs has been increasingly involved in both advising and brokering deals to privatize major highways by selling them off to foreign investors. In addition to advising Indiana on the Toll Road deal, Goldman Sachs has worked with Texas governor Rick Perry's administration on privatization projects, and according to John Schmidt, the former adviser to the Chicago mayor's office, it was a Goldman Sachs representative who first pitched the city on the idea of leasing out the Skyway. Goldman Sachs has played a major role in advising states on how to structure privatization deals—even while positioning itself to invest in the toll road market.