Goldman profit falls by 53%

Goldman Sachs Group Inc, the world's biggest securities firm by market value, reported a smaller-than-estimated 53 percent drop in first-quarter profit after asset writedowns and lower fees from investment banking.

Net income fell to $1.51 billion, or $3.23 a share, in the three months ended Feb 29 from $3.2 billion, or $6.67, a year earlier, the New York-based firm said in a statement yesterday. The average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for $2.59 a share, with forecasts ranging from $1.95 to $3.40.

Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein is navigating a credit market crisis that led the US Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase & Co to organize a bailout and then takeover of Bear Stearns Cos. Goldman's profit dropped the most since 1999. Losses on mortgage loans and related securities were about $1 billion.

Goldman has stayed "above the fray and probably faces the least amount of risk", said Ralph Cole, who helps oversee $2.7 billion, including Goldman shares, at Ferguson Wellman Capital Management in Portland, Oregon, before the earnings release.

The first quarter marks the 11th straight that Goldman's earnings exceeded analysts' estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Goldman has declined 30 percent this year in New York Stock Exchange composite trading as losses in subprime mortgages eroded confidence in the credit markets.

Agencies

(China Daily 03/19/2008 page16)