The TARP saga continues …
Excerpted from New York Times, “Goldman Using Share Sale to Return Bailout Funds”, by Louise Story, April 15, 2009
Six months after accepting a financial lifeline from Washington, a newly profitable Goldman Sachs is pushing to return the billions of taxpayer dollars that it received in an effort to extricate itself from heightened government control.
If successful, Goldman would become the first major bank to return funds received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Such a step would probably enable Goldman — long one of the most lucrative places to work on Wall Street — to free itself from government-imposed restrictions on compensation.
It is unclear how quickly Goldman might be allowed to return the $10 billion it accepted last October. Goldman is not allowed to return the money without the approval of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, which both declined to comment on Monday.
One analyst comments, “Goldman can walk the halls of Congress waving a check, but is it in the best interest of the marketplace for them to pay it back?”
* * * * *
Goldman said on Monday that it would seek to raise $5 billion by selling new common stock and use the proceeds, along with other funds, to repay the government.
“We just think that operating our business without the government capital would be an easier thing to do. We’d be under less scrutiny, and under less pressure.”
Edit by DAF
* * * * *
Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/business/15goldman.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print
* * * * *
Want more from the Homa Files?
Click link => The Homa Files Blog
* * * * *
Leave a Reply