GOLDMAN SACHS reported a third-quarter net loss of $428 million, only the second time since it went public in 1999 that Wall Street’s most admired and reviled investment bank has not announced a profit.
The loss of 84 cents per share compared with earnings of $2.98 per share in the third quarter last year. Revenues plunged from $8.9 billion to $3.6 billion, with mark-to-market losses in the bank’s debt securities weighing on the results.
Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive, acknowledged he was “disappointed”.
“There is still a lot of uncertainty (in markets), and a lot of it is based on who says what on what day,” said Goldman chief financial officer David Viniar.
Goldman’s investing and lending business, which includes its principal investment arm and a stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, reported negative net revenues of $2.5billion.
This included a $1 billion loss from the decline in value of its investment in the Chinese bank and $1.9bn of mark-to-market losses from equity and debt investments.
Boston-based State Street, the worlds third-largest institutional investor, reported net income of $543 million, or $1.10 a share. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011)
