Business | General
Goldman Sachs funds paid $49.6m to top executives
Goldman Sachs Group Inc's top 10 executives received $49.6 million (Dh182.03 million) from their investments in hedge funds and private equity funds during 2008, more than most of them earned in compensation after agreeing to forgo bonuses.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 23:37 March 28, 2009
New York: Goldman Sachs Group Inc's top 10 executives received $49.6 million (Dh182.03 million) from their investments in hedge funds and private equity funds during 2008, more than most of them earned in compensation after agreeing to forgo bonuses.
Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein's $1.1 million in total compensation was dwarfed by the $11.3 million he received in profits and other income from his fund investments, the New York-based company's proxy filing showed. Co-President Gary Cohn's $3.7 million in pay contrasts with $7.4 million in fund income, the filing showed.
While the payouts pale in comparison with Blankfein's record-setting $67.9 million bonus for 2007, they illustrate that top executives had other sources of income at the sixth-biggest US bank by assets. Two of the executives, Co-President Jon Winkelried and Co-General Counsel Gregory Palm, sold fund stakes back to the firm to raise money in the last four months of the year rather than sell stock in a rocky market.
"Stock sales would easily have covered their liquidity requirements but given the turbulent market conditions, we, and they, were concerned that such sales would be misconstrued by the market as indicating a lack of confidence in Goldman Sachs," said Lucas van Praag, a spokesman. "It was clearly in the long-term interests of the organisation and our shareholders that we purchase these interests." Goldman Sachs bought the holdings after consulting with the board, he said.
Palm, 51, raised $38.3 million in cash, while Winkelried, 49, garnered $19.7 million, the proxy showed. Palm's sale represented 25 per cent of his total investments in the funds and Winkelried's was 30 per cent, said van Praag.
As of March 9, Winkelried owned 2.79 million Goldman Sachs shares, Friday's filing showed. At their most recent closing price of $108.08 apiece, the stock would be worth $301.1 million. Palm's total shareholdings weren't disclosed in the filing because he's not a board member.
Winkelried, paid $67.5 million in salary and bonuses in 2007 and $53 million in 2006, is leaving the firm this month. Last year, Winkelried listed his Nantucket, Massachusetts, estate for sale at $55 million.
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