David Solomon would never win a popularity contest inside Goldman Sachs.
Low-level employees grouse that the chief executive makes them work around the clock through the pandemic to keep up with deal flow. White-shoe investment bankers complain that they get blasted when they miss out on business.
He uses the corporate jet to travel to his mansion in the Bahamas, even as he indulges in hobbies that include pricey wines, kitesurfing and DJing at nightclubs — all the while demanding that his people get back to the office as the COVID pandemic subsides.
And if you’re a Goldman associate and see him having lunch at some restaurant in the Hamptons, don’t make the mistake (as one poor sap did) of stopping by to say hello. He will probably chew you out because in his worldview Goldman execs are supposed to eat only what they kill.
Yes, he’s hated in many parts of Goldman’s sprawling empire on Wall Street — and it doesn’t matter. Solomon is becoming a much-beloved leader with another, more important constituency: his investors.
These headlines (including an amazing story in Bloomberg detailing the plane use and the lunch incident, on top of The Post’s coverage of Goldman first-year analysts’ grueling 100-hour work weeks) have been making the rounds and stoking considerable schadenfreude in C-suites across Wall Street.
But the Solomon-hating hasn’t halted Goldman’s strong performance or its surging stock price.
Shares are up 132 percent over the past year, compared with the 84 percent surge of banking giant JPMorgan, the gold standard of Wall Street, and the 62 percent spike in the S&P 500 index of big company stocks.
Only Morgan Stanley, which has been on a buying binge of expansion, is doing better, with its stock surging 168 percent since last year.
Of course, it’s hard not to make money on Wall Street in times like these. With the Fed keeping interest rates low and printing the currency at a feverish pace, lower borrowing costs make it easier for Goldman to finance trades. Cheap money has led to a flood of stock and bond offerings for Goldman to underwrite.
Shares of blue-chip companies like Goldman and not-so-blue-chip ones like GameStop will go up when rates are so low because there’s no place else to park cash and earn a decent return.
The Link LonkMarch 21, 2021 at 09:23AM
https://nypost.com/2021/03/20/forget-griping-staffers-investors-love-david-solomon/
Forget griping staffers, investors love Goldman Sachs' David Solomon - New York Post
https://news.google.com/search?q=forget&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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