Because of the stunning demand for its stock, Goldman Sachs increased by 9 million shares the number it made available to the public.
Goldman Sachs takes center stage today as it hits the public markets after an initial public offering of stock raised $3.66 billion for the firm last night.
The white-shoe Wall Street partnership sold 69 million shares for $53 per share, giving the public 14.8 percent of the fourth-largest U.S. securities firm.
Wall Street expects high turnover of those shares today, as investors who had expressed interest but not gotten shares in the offering buy in the public markets.
Because of the stunning demand for its stock, Goldman Sachs increased by 9 million shares the number it made available to the public.
The New York Stock Exchange, where the company commences trading today, invited Chairman and CEO Henry Paulson to ring the opening bell this morning.
The Goldman Sachs IPO has been eagerly awaited since last year when the firm announced its plans, but postponed them because of a world financial meltdown. But with the return of the bull market – and health to financial services firms – Goldman Sachs is back.
“The company believes that significant growth and profit opportunities exist for financial intermediaries worldwide,” said Manish Shah, publisher of IPO Maven. “These opportunities derive from important long-term trends, including financial market deregulation, the globalization of the world economy, the increasing focus of companies on shareholder value, consolidations in various industries, increases in investable funds due in part to changing demographics and accelerating technology and financial product innovation.”
When it comes to accelerating technology, the brokerage world has been rocked by the growth of online trading of stocks. Wall Street insiders are convinced that Goldman will use some of the proceeds from its offering to acquire E*Trade Group, the third-biggest online brokerage, after Schwab and Fidelity. Neither Goldman nor E*Trade executives would comment on these prevalent rumors. The two firms are already partners in various financial services offerings. E*Trade clients have the opportunity to buy into IPOs underwritten by Goldman Sachs, which is the number one underwriter of IPOs.