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Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s dealmakers celebrated one of their own rising to the top of the firm by delivering an unexpected boost to his first month.
Wall Street’s top advisory franchise delivered in a quarter when most of its competitors were beset by a slowdown in completed merger transactions and underwhelming debt-underwriting activity. Goldman Sachs’s investment-banking group posted a 10 percent revenue gain last quarter, vaulting past analysts’ estimates for a drop.
David Solomon, who took over as chief executive officer on October 1, spent a decade atop the investment-banking division, helping cement its expansion. A number of senior executives he worked with at the time now form a key part of the team he’s putting together to shepherd the entire firm, including President John Waldron and incoming Chief Financial Officer Stephen Scherr.
After putting his management team in place, Solomon will have to turn his attention to appeasing shareholders, with the stock down almost 16 percent this year. That slump compares with a decline of just 5.8 percent for the S&P 500 Financials Index.
Shares of Goldman Sachs rose 1.4 percent in early trading in New York. Investment-banking revenue of $1.98 billion surpassed the average estimate of $1.75 billion, but, in a note of caution, the bank said in a statement that its backlog was lower compared with the end of the second quarter.