The American investment bank Goldman Sachs, hit hard by the fall of its consulting and wealth management activities, saw its net profit melt by 69% in the fourth quarter.
The turnover of the establishment fell by 16% to 10.6 billion dollars and its net profit was displayed at 1.2 billion dollars.
The income generated by bankers advising companies on mergers and acquisitions, IPOs or fundraising fell by 48%, the bosses preferring to be cautious in times of economic uncertainty.
The other major US banks have faced a similar decline in this activity, the commissions of investment bankers having fallen by 58% at Citigroup or 57% at JPMorgan Chase.
Income from asset and wealth management at Goldman Sachs fell 27%.
Traders’ activities, on the other hand, held up well in the brokerage of currencies, commodities and bonds (+44%) but fell by 5% in the equity market.
The bank also put more money aside over the period, provisioning $972 million, to deal with any outstanding payments on the sums it lent, in particular on credit cards and for real estate.
The results of Goldman Sachs are well below analysts’ expectations, the group having posted an adjusted profit per share of 3.32 dollars once morest 5.48 dollars expected.
The stock was down 2.2% in electronic trading prior to the opening of official trading.
Over the full year, Goldman Sachs’ turnover fell by 20% to 47.4 billion dollars and its net profit was halved to 10.8 billion dollars.
The establishment of Wall Street, which announced in October a major reorganization including a sharp reduction in its ambitions on the side of services to individuals and small businesses, recently initiated the dismissal of around 3,200 people.
The group employed 48,500 people at the end of 2022, compared to 43,900 at the end of 2021.
/ATS
