NEW YORK, Oct 16 ― Goldman Sachs Group Inc missed Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit yesterday as it took heavy losses from high-profile investments in WeWork and Uber Technologies and faced up to a weakening global economy.
The bank's shares slipped nearly 3 per cent as revenue at three of its four major businesses fell, including a 15 per cent drop in investment banking revenue because of lower advisory and underwriting fees.
Net revenue at Goldman's investing and lending division slumped 40 per cent as it swallowed a loss of about US$80 million (RM335 million) on its stake in WeWork owner The We Company, along with hits from other investments.
Chief Operating Officer Stephen Scherr blamed the bank's investments in ride-hailing company Uber, medical device maker Avantor Inc and trading platform Tradeweb for the US$267 million markdown in the quarter.
Scherr said those investments comprise 40 per cent of the bank's US$2.3 billion invested in public companies, and they “were the largest contributors to the downdraft.”
Office-sharing startup WeWork's valuation plummeted from a peak of US$47 billion in January to as low as US$10-12 billion, Reuters reported last month, forcing it to pull its IPO. Uber's shares are down 24 per cent since the company debuted earlier this year.
An analyst note out earlier this month from Morgan Stanley projected that Goldman could lose as much as US$264 million on its investment in The We Company. After the writedown, the bank's equity in We is worth roughly US$70 million, Scherr said.
Mixed results
The only bright spot for Goldman was its institutional client services business, which accounts for more than a third of its overall revenue, but a 6 per cent growth at the unit was not enough to offset weakness in its other major businesses.
“Overall, GS posted mixed results this quarter. While the top line beat to us was a positive, it was driven by more trading which tends to be less persistent and investment banking results were weak,” analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said in a note to clients yesterday.
Bond trading revenue was up 8 per cent, while equities rose 5 per cent. JPMorgan also reported a surge in bond trading.
Wall Street's biggest banks are facing several challenges in growing their revenue, largely as concerns of slowing growth have deterred companies from tapping public markets for funds, but Chief Executive David Solomon sounded optimistic on a call with analysts.
“The IPO process is alive and well in the United States,” he said.
Under Solomon, Goldman has undertaken a major shift in strategy from its focus on trading to building a bigger consumer business in a bid to shield its revenue from wild swings in financial markets.
Goldman, which recently launched a credit card with Apple, has also attempted to build out new businesses, but top executives at the bank have warned in previous quarters that those efforts will take time to bear fruit.
Solomon has pushed his top lieutenants to bring in at least US$5 billion of new revenue from those businesses by 2020, while simultaneously conducting a full-scale review of the business that has led to a number of new efficiency initiatives and a culling of its partnership pool of top executives.
The bank's net earnings applicable to common shareholders fell 27 per cent to US$1.79 billion in the quarter ended September 30 from US$2.45 billion a year ago. Earnings per share fell to US$4.79 from US$6.28 a year earlier.
Total net revenue fell 6 per cent to US$8.32 billion.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of US$4.81 per share and revenue of US$8.31 billion, according to the IBES estimate from Refinitiv.
Expectations from most brokerages tracking the investment bank were generally muted as macroeconomic conditions have been weighing on investor sentiment.
Goldman's main rival Morgan Stanley is expected to report quarterly results tomorrow. ― Reuters
