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Speaker 1: We're joined by the chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs

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Speaker 1: International Business. He's Richard, not Richard as always. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for making us smarter on how you see

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Speaker 1: the world and the kind of deals that we could

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Speaker 1: see in the future. There was a mismatch in IPOs.

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Speaker 1: I guess in m and A last year that buyers

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Speaker 1: were expecting too much and well buyers didn't want to

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Speaker 1: spend as much as actually sellers want to pay for

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Speaker 1: Does it correct this year?

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Speaker 2: We're getting closer, But let's take ourselves back to this

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Speaker 2: time last year. Yeah, the view was pretty pessimistic. You know,

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Speaker 2: this time last year, the expectation was a recession in

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Speaker 2: the US, and there was a reason, big gloomy outlook.

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Speaker 2: Of course, the markets performed much better than that, and

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Speaker 2: you know, we know the US marketers up twenty three

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Speaker 2: twenty four percent, so strong performance. And we also carried

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Speaker 2: into last year assets of that had been purchased at

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Speaker 2: much higher prices, so there was clearly that difference in

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Speaker 2: bed offer. I think people, you know, worked through last year.

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Speaker 2: We've made a lot of progress and I think we're

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Speaker 2: getting we're getting closer. I think they're still a gap

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Speaker 2: so I wouldn't expect, you know, this year to be

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Speaker 2: back full throttle, but we're getting closer.

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Speaker 1: How concerned are you about twenty twenty four? So we

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Speaker 1: had a resilient economy in twenty twenty three. Now we're

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Speaker 1: talking about conflicts geopolitics. I mean the news this week

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Speaker 1: was escalating tensions. How does it play through markets?

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Speaker 2: Well, there are two questions there, you know, first of

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Speaker 2: the economics, and I think we feel better about the economics.

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Speaker 2: I think we've got we've got more of a tailwind

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Speaker 2: this year than a headwind, which was really last year. Story,

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Speaker 2: your rates are going to come down. There's a lot

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Speaker 2: of debate when how quickly. You're clearly the central banks

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Speaker 2: around the world trying to slow the expectations down a

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Speaker 2: little bit in terms of raid cuts and the speed

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Speaker 2: and when they begin. But that's to be that's going

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Speaker 2: to be a tailwind, depends when it kicks in. Your

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Speaker 2: markets are at healthy levels. The European economy is going

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Speaker 2: to be back to growth. You know, no expectation really

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Speaker 2: of a recession in the US. So I think economically

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Speaker 2: we feel in a much better place. The geopolitical discussion,

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Speaker 2: so this is not new of course this has been

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Speaker 2: going on for the last couple of years. The issue

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Speaker 2: is that the list keeps getting longer. We started with Russia, Ukraine,

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Speaker 2: then we had the tragedy of October seventh, We've got

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Speaker 2: you know, what's been going on, you know this week

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Speaker 2: in terms of expanding into these renewed strikes, more and

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Speaker 2: more countries you know, getting involved, and that is of

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Speaker 2: course a real, real concern. Markeuts would like to see

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Speaker 2: the list of issues shrinking as opposed to growing. They're

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Speaker 2: growing right now.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, what are your employees telling you so, I

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Speaker 1: know this is a hot year for bonuses. What can

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Speaker 1: you tell them?

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, we always we pay for performance. What is

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Speaker 2: really really important to us is that we have the

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Speaker 2: best team in the field. We feel terrific about the

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Speaker 2: team that we've got. The strategic focus of the firm

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Speaker 2: is as good as it's ever been. We've got two

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Speaker 2: significant pillars, both of scale, and at the end of

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Speaker 2: the day, the success of that strategy depends on the

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Speaker 2: quality of our people. So we're very focused on keeping

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Speaker 2: the best people at the firm working together. The global

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Speaker 2: footprint that we've put together over the last four decades,

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Speaker 2: probably you know is a key differentiator for us, and

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Speaker 2: our people feel good. They like the focus of the firm,

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Speaker 2: They like the scale that we have and the leadership

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Speaker 2: positions we have in our business. We'll play the ball

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Speaker 2: at our feet. You know, there's going to be unpredictable

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Speaker 2: moments this year. There's going to be uncertainty. They're going

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Speaker 2: to be issues that come across our place that we

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Speaker 2: haven't foreseen. With the best people, the best team working together,

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Speaker 2: you can deal with those.

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Speaker 1: So Richard, I mean, there was a point where Goldman,

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Speaker 1: of course, was almost in the Ibor storm, and we

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Speaker 1: don't really hear about that anymore. Do you think that's

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Speaker 1: like a thing of the past.

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Speaker 2: Strategic clarity is a fantastic thing, and I think we've

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Speaker 2: got that and I think as we close the chapter

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Speaker 2: on twenty three and move into twenty four, it's all

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Speaker 2: about execution, continuing to build scale in these businesses, and

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Speaker 2: that's what our people are focused on.

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Speaker 1: Where do you see the best growth actually coming from

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Speaker 1: your regions?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting, how was in Asia last week? It

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Speaker 2: was terrific to be in Japan. A lot of enthusiasm

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Speaker 2: around Japan, and I think we'll spend a lot more

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Speaker 2: time talking about Japan. As we go through this year,

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Speaker 2: they're going to have to think through a change in

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Speaker 2: monetary policy, and inflation is back there, and when you

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Speaker 2: go there, you just reminded of the scale of the

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Speaker 2: manufacturing capability, the scale of that economy. It's going to

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Speaker 2: be an important market to focus on. Of course, India

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Speaker 2: is terrific. Everybody we talked to is doing more in India.

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Speaker 2: We're doing more in India, So I think that'll be

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Speaker 2: you that'll be interesting. But then of course in you know,

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Speaker 2: the big two develop markets in the US and Europe.

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Speaker 2: Activity in the capital market side we expect to pick up.

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Speaker 2: You know, it'll be at a steady pace, maybe not

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Speaker 2: back to peak levels, but it'll be better than it was.

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Speaker 2: We expect twenty four than twenty three. Capital markets do

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Speaker 2: not stay shot forever. You know, they reopened at the

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Speaker 2: back of last year. They'll continue to reopen. That's our believe.

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Speaker 1: So are there pockets for you actually see hiring to

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Speaker 1: actually make up for maybe some of the strength that

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Speaker 1: you were talking about in certain specific businesses or regions.

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Speaker 2: We hire every single year, you know, we're hiring three

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Speaker 2: and a half thousand people or so from campus, and

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Speaker 2: we do that year in and year out. It's really

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Speaker 2: important to continue to feed the machine and build the

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Speaker 2: next generation so that we're always doing and then of

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Speaker 2: course laterally we've being bring people in to drive certain pockets.

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Speaker 2: Our asset wealth management platform broadly defined, is a huge

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Speaker 2: focus for us and so that will receive significant attention.

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Speaker 1: So you won't believe the number of bankers that are

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Speaker 1: not happy about BASEL, that are not happy about regulation.

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Speaker 1: Is this top of mind as well? Is there a

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Speaker 1: danger that actually what they put in place doesn't really

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Speaker 1: make sense?

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Speaker 2: Well, of course we're in the middle of that process

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Speaker 2: obviously the common period end of this week. It's been

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Speaker 2: interesting to me to just see, you know, the broad

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Speaker 2: range of input that's come into this, because it's not

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Speaker 2: just the banks that are talking about this, it's the

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Speaker 2: end users that are talking about this, and of course

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Speaker 2: that's really important, and some of those end users are

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Speaker 2: on the asset management space. But it's the real economy,

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Speaker 2: you know, it's the airlines, it's the users of the

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Speaker 2: products that we help them hedge, and if costs go

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Speaker 2: up there that impacts the real economy and it's important,

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Speaker 2: and the outpouring of commentary has been striking.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean, could it actually lead to I

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Speaker 1: don't know if it's some kind of a financial event

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Speaker 1: or maybe not systemic, but is there really worry that

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Speaker 1: the market changes and seizes parts of it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a good dialogue and the dialogue is open

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Speaker 2: if you look at some of the commentary that's been

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Speaker 2: coming out of the from the leadership of the FED.

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Speaker 2: And obviously no one's predicting an endpoint. You know, there's

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Speaker 2: still work to be done and there's a process to

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Speaker 2: be gone through. I would expect there are some smart

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Speaker 2: people looking at this, and in the end, people typically

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Speaker 2: get to a smart place.

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Speaker 1: You're an optimist, Okay, Richard, Thanks so much. Richard not

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Speaker 1: a chief executive officer of Goldman SAX International Business