D-day at Goldman as kingmakers choose who will make partner

11 April 2012

For fans of popularity contests like Big Brother, the investment banking equivalent is about to start in Fleet Street's Peterborough Court, where Goldman Sachs, the world's most successful investment bank, this week kicked off its biennial partnership elections.

The contestants are financial high-flyers and self-effacing derivatives wizards rather than self-obsessed layabouts, but they do share one thing in common - rather than spending the summer relaxing on holiday, they will be holed up inside, fretting about the opinions of their peers and whether they have done enough to earn the ultimate accolade.

For Goldman's rising stars, the stakes are high. From now until November, candidates looking to enter the bank's 300-strong partnership pool will endure every type of scrutiny, appraisal and cross-examination but success means entry into Wall Street's elite.

The rewards are huge, with Goldman partners sharing 20% of the bank's total annual bonus pool on top of any other awards they earn throughout the year.

This year's partnership round is set to be the most bruising of recent times for the Goldman's London-based bankers and is in stark contrast to the last elections in 2006, when Goldman enjoyed another record year against the backdrop of highly favourable market conditions.

This time, candidates are being evaluated on among other things, their performance over the last 12 months, running from the start of the credit crunch.

Goldman may have escaped the billion-dollar losses of its rivals, but it faces many other challenges, notably the need to control costs and ensure it has the best people to navigate through the crisis.

Last month, it began cutting staff at its London-based investment banking operation, and in common with its competitors it has been redeploying top talent from London, where capital markets and M&A activity is slowing, to faster-growing markets such as the Middle East and Asia.

A smart banker going for partnership this time around will probably already be in Riyadh, Dubai or Shanghai, having volunteered for a secondment in January.

Those left behind may find they have not generated enough revenues to succeed. Since Goldman's initial public offering in 1999, the partnership pool has been dominated by the firm's investmentbankers.

However, the bank's trading operations have generated the bulk of the firm's profits in recent years, and there has been pressure to elevate more traders to the partnership pool and address the imbalance.

Goldman has always managed these tensions carefully, by promoting its top traders at the same time as ensuring it does not lose its best investment bankers.

The election process is run by the partnership committee, which is headed by Jon Winkelried and Gary Cohn, Goldman's co-presidents. Both are former traders, and it is they who decide the future shape of the bank.

Once they have reached their decision, it is left to Lloyd Blankfein, the bank's chairman and chief executive and another former trader, to contact each of the successful applicants and tell them the good news.

While there is no typical profile of a Goldman partner, those that are successful-share similar qualities in that they are no-nonsense star traders or well-connected investment bankers who bring in the business.

At Goldman, teamwork is valued above the individual, and the bank frowns on the stars its creates acting like celebrities. Having a high public profile is often a barrier to becoming a partner.

There is no fixed age for a Goldman partner, and Goldman has no reservations in promoting its best young talent. Mike Sherwood, who runs the bank's London-based operation along with Richard Gnodde, was made partner at 29 while Pierre-Henri Flamand, a London-based Frenchman who is in charge of the bank's massive proprietary trading business, reputedly earned a £51 million bonus in 2006, a year after he was made partner at the age of 34.

Partnership is not for life, with the average tenure being eight years, although many stay for much longer. Sherwood has been with Goldman for 20 years, and despite suggestions from some insiders that he may be thinking of life after Goldman, he shows no signs of calling it a day.

When Sherwood does retire, it will be on his own terms, a privilege not enjoyed by all members of Goldman's elite. It is a little-known feature of every election that as Goldman adds to the partnership pool, so it takes away.

The process is known internally as "defanging" and it is expected to have more bite than usual this year because of the fundamental shift going on in Goldman's business and in investment banking in general.

Areas like private equity, which were booming in 2006, have now slumped following the credit crisis, while revenue growth in developed European markets like the UK, France and Germany is slowing to a trickle.

Goldman has been positioning itself in highgrowth markets for more than a decade (its own analysts invented the term Bric, to refer to fast-growing emerging markets Brazil, Russia, India and China) and it will want to ensure it is rewarding the best people. The Middle East is also a priority for Goldman, particularly in its wealth management business.

The best guide to predicting who will make the cut and who will fall by the wayside is to follow the money. And for those who fail to make the grade, there is a consolation - they can always have another shot in 2010.

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