(Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc <GS.N> will name no more than 60 partners in 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The bank’s new class of partners, to be promoted next month, is likely to be its smallest since the mid-1990s, according to the report.
Goldman’s partners collectively own a small stake in the firm and are the bank’s most elite employees, typically taking home million-dollar salary packages and having access to lucrative investment opportunities. The bank currently has roughly 400 partners in its ranks.
Goldman’s partnership ranks have nearly doubled since the bank went public in 1999 but have shrunk over the last decade as part of a strategy to make the Wall Street bank less top-heavy and raise the bar for employees seeking to become partners.
Under David Solomon, who took over as the bank’s chief executive officer in 2018, that trend has continued. Goldman named 69 new partners two years ago during Solomon’s first year as CEO, according to the report.
According to the Journal, partners will receive carried interest, a portion of future profits taxed at low rates, in four of Goldman’s private investment funds starting this year.
The firm will lend partners up to half a million dollars to increase their personal investment, the report added.
Goldman declined to comment on the report.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M. and Shailesh Kuber)
