(GS) plans to cut about a quarter of its investment-banking jobs in Asia, excluding Japan, according to media reports, citing person with knowledge of the matter. Sources familiar with the bank’s plans, told the Financial Times that the bulk of the cuts will be in Hong Kong and Singapore. It will be left with slightly more than 200 bankers across Asia. Earlier this year, Goldman quietly moved to shed about 2,000 jobs, about 6% of its workforce, which it says would save $700 million a year.
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The agency said that M&A deals have declined 30 percent to $572.9 billion so far in 2016 from $745.7 billion during the corresponding period past year, according to Thomson Reuters data.
One of the sources said no managing directors in Asia were in the running to be made partners this year while three existing partners in the region had been stripped of their titles. Goldman Sachs also lost out to local competitors; for example in Hong Kong 7 of the top 10 IPOs this year were handled by Chinese banks (as per Bloomberg), and the ranking for Goldman is the lowest since 2008, as far as equity offerings in Asia are concerned. China’s economy has slowed and its stock market has been volatile, with wild swings past year that effectively killed what had been a lucrative business for Goldman and others in underwriting initial public offerings.
There have been further departures this year, including its Southeast Asia chairman Tim Leissner.
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Second, investment banks in mainland China are taking profits away from western banks such as Goldman and Morgan Stanley, as China’s state-owned enterprises now tend to seek domestic banks when they go public in Hong Kong.
