Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. I'm joined by Richardaldo,
Speaker 1: the newly promoted vice chairman of Goldman Sachs. Richard, first
Speaker 1: of all, good morning, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: But look, a change of job, a change of title.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about it?
Speaker 2: I feel fantastic for the overall firm. It's a hugely
Speaker 2: exciting and energizing time. If I put into a broader context, you,
Speaker 2: if I think about twenty twenty three, twenty Forard is really
Speaker 2: nailing the firm's strategy, which we've really got set. You're
Speaker 2: putting in the organizational structure, but of course people is
Speaker 2: the most important thing here, and we've now put in
Speaker 2: place a broad set of leaders that can really take
Speaker 2: this forward, execute and deliver over the next five to
Speaker 2: ten years. And so that's what this is part of.
Speaker 2: For myself, Yeah, I've given up my CEO responsibilities for GSI,
Speaker 2: but I'm thrilled to have the remit to really operate
Speaker 2: broadly around the world and spend time with our people,
Speaker 2: our clients, and I'm I'm very excited about the next
Speaker 2: next period of time.
Speaker 1: So what's the one thing that Goldman has to do now?
Speaker 1: Is it talent retention more than actually getting strategy right,
Speaker 1: which actually has proven to be the right thing to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've just got to we've got to have the
Speaker 2: right people, and we've got to have the right culture.
Speaker 2: And if we get people in culture right, Goldman Sacks
Speaker 2: will continue to be a great firm. And so we
Speaker 2: focus on that day in and day out. We invest
Speaker 2: in it. This is part of that investment. The other
Speaker 2: thing I'd say is here we focus so much on
Speaker 2: making sure that we've got a deep bench. But there's
Speaker 2: no point in having a deep bench if you don't
Speaker 2: use it. And this is an example of us really
Speaker 2: using that bench and bringing the next generation off. And
Speaker 2: there's going to be a huge amount of energy and
Speaker 2: our clients will feel it, our people will feel it.
Speaker 2: It's an exciting time.
Speaker 1: Are you expecting to also hire a lot more given
Speaker 1: all of the animal spirits that could be unlocked in
Speaker 1: the US? And what does it mean for the rest
Speaker 1: of the world, including Europe?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, we always try and modulate this. It's
Speaker 2: easy to get carried away. None of us can predict
Speaker 2: the future. Yeah, we all know how it feels right now.
Speaker 2: If you're sitting here and you're talking to someone from
Speaker 2: the US, it's huge optimism and enthusiasm. If you're talking
Speaker 2: to someone from Europe, it's a little bit less the case.
Speaker 2: And so we try and hire with a longer term view.
Speaker 2: These are long term careers. We're not bringing people in
Speaker 2: for the next twelve months. We're bringing people in for
Speaker 2: a career. So hiring in at the bottom continues to
Speaker 2: be hugely important. We do that whatever the cycle is.
Speaker 2: But of course you know we're adding all the time
Speaker 2: to our organization. The organization is growing.
Speaker 1: I haven't one single person almost that's really optimistic about
Speaker 1: the UK or Europe.
Speaker 2: Are you No, The mood's not good. I mean my
Speaker 2: takeaway would be and we all know the numbers, so
Speaker 2: there's no point or need to rehearse them. Now. The
Speaker 2: sentiment across you know, the big cap the big name
Speaker 2: European industrial companies, you know that CEO community, there's an
Speaker 2: increasing level of frustration because obviously they can see what's
Speaker 2: happening in the US. Frankly, a lot of them are
Speaker 2: investing significant dollars into the US, that's where the money's going.
Speaker 2: But they also want to invest and grow and build
Speaker 2: in the European economy, and so there's an increasing sense
Speaker 2: of frustration, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see
Speaker 2: that community broadly becoming much more assertive, assertive with the
Speaker 2: regulatory framework, assertive in Brussels, in their own domestic capitals,
Speaker 2: and really leaning in because I think that everybody knows
Speaker 2: what the program needs to be. But I think people
Speaker 2: are done with the talking. People really want to try
Speaker 2: and push this into action. And if there is no
Speaker 2: response from the discussions, then once and I said, we'll
Speaker 2: see more assertion going forward, I suspect.
Speaker 1: How do you see client behavior? Are they going to
Speaker 1: spend more money? Are Europeans and international investors just going
Speaker 1: to be spending more money in the US or are
Speaker 1: they staying put for the moment until they figure out
Speaker 1: what happens.
Speaker 2: Both things are happening, so you the opportunity and the
Speaker 2: returns are obviously they're in the US. And you know,
Speaker 2: we've seen the activity of this week. That's only going
Speaker 2: to encourage that behavior. So we'll continue to see capital
Speaker 2: flowing in that direction. But look, Europe is a very
Speaker 2: very large and significant economy and people want to participate here,
Speaker 2: so I think we will see more restructure, We'll see
Speaker 2: more consolidation. There's a real need across Europe to build
Speaker 2: global champions of scale that can compete globally. Certainly in
Speaker 2: our backlog and our client discussions, your EMINE activity, big
Speaker 2: strategic transactions. You know, we're seeing frankly as much of
Speaker 2: that as I can remember. So I think things are
Speaker 2: going to things are going to move.
Speaker 1: A credit credit what's your ambition there?
Speaker 2: Well, as you know, we've got about one hundred and
Speaker 2: thirty one hundred and forty billion dollars of private credit
Speaker 2: sitting in our alternative asset management business and we aim
Speaker 2: to double that. We want to get that through three
Speaker 2: hundred billion, and then we'll take it from there. This
Speaker 2: is a This is a really important source of financing
Speaker 2: for our client base and they will continue to use it.
Speaker 2: We obviously managing that alternative asset platform for investors. But
Speaker 2: if you're a user, if you're a corporate, you can
Speaker 2: go to the bank market, you can go to the
Speaker 2: public credit markets, and you can go to the private
Speaker 2: cre and having that choice is important. It all ties
Speaker 2: into the capital market union concept in Europe. We need
Speaker 2: to develop these markets, We need to develop the securitization market.
Speaker 2: Let's see what gets done.
Speaker 1: I mean, what do you think Donald Trump's administration will
Speaker 1: unlock in terms of you know, crypto. Are you going
Speaker 1: to see really big deregulation which would also probut private markets?
Speaker 2: Yeah. All I can say is if you if you're
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur and you're getting out of bed in the
Speaker 2: United States this week, you are full of optimism and
Speaker 2: energy and whatever your chosen field. It may be crypto,
Speaker 2: it maybe fracking, it maybe just starting a business. You're
Speaker 2: going to be optimistic that you can drive something forward.
Speaker 2: So I wouldn't isolate it sector by sector. I think
Speaker 2: the energy will be contagious and it will be contagious
Speaker 2: across all parts of that economy. And I think that's
Speaker 2: what we're going to see. Now. We can't predict the future,
Speaker 2: as I said, so let's see how all of this
Speaker 2: plays out. Obviously, the markets themselves have anticipated a lot
Speaker 2: of this last year. The US market up twenty percent,
Speaker 2: was up twenty percent the year before. That market's not
Speaker 2: going to grow twenty percent year in year out, So
Speaker 2: you know, we need to have some sense of moderation
Speaker 2: in terms of where the market is. But the underlying
Speaker 2: energy across the economy. The economic growth, you know, plus
Speaker 2: two percent? Does it get to three percent? Time will tell,
Speaker 2: But there's a lot of energy then.
Speaker 1: I mean there seems too you know, equities are price
Speaker 1: of perfection in the US. Should that be a worry
Speaker 1: when there's a lot of talk about inflation being a
Speaker 1: concern for the Fed.
Speaker 2: Well, it's judge perfection with hindsight. It depends what happens.
Speaker 2: Maybe they're priced with perfection, maybe they're not. But obviously
Speaker 2: rates are a huge focus. You know, we've seen one
Speaker 2: hundred racist points of road cuts over the last twelve months.
Speaker 2: You know, we expect another fifty this year, maybe another
Speaker 2: twenty five and twenty twenty six. But the data is
Speaker 2: going to determine how that plays out. And obviously, if
Speaker 2: the economy is running really hot, that's going to be
Speaker 2: more difficult to have those red cuts here. The tariff discussion,
Speaker 2: we'll see how that plays out. If that is on
Speaker 2: the margin inflationary again, that'll make it more difficult for redcuts.
Speaker 2: There's a lot in front of us, and so the
Speaker 2: range of outcomes is as broad as it's ever been here.
Speaker 2: And I think if the left tail and the right
Speaker 2: tail you know, they're long and they're fatter than they've been.
Speaker 2: So I think one needs to be forward leaning the
Speaker 2: windows that you're back. But I think you need to
Speaker 2: be a risk manager at the second time and be
Speaker 2: looking left and right and make sure that you know
Speaker 2: you're anticipating all the potential outcomes. They're all possible.
Speaker 1: Is that your biggest concern is kind of bifurcation or
Speaker 1: trying to understand, you know, the positive and the negative.
Speaker 2: That's our job, you know, our job is to be
Speaker 2: ready for whatever the outcome is going to be, and
Speaker 2: we advise our clients in that way. We manage our
Speaker 2: own risks in that way because, as we said a
Speaker 2: couple of times in this discussion, the future is hard
Speaker 2: to predict.
Speaker 1: In terms of the announcements that we've had, I think
Speaker 1: you've doubled the management committee. If you look at the numbers,
Speaker 1: more women would probably be welcome. What's the secret sauce
Speaker 1: on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we continue to drive those initiatives. You're absolutely right,
Speaker 2: it's a huge priority for the organization. Our most recent
Speaker 2: partner class, which we announced at the end of last year,
Speaker 2: in our European partner group, actually thirty eight percent of
Speaker 2: that class was women. It was the highest number ever globally.
Speaker 2: It was in the high twenties. We would love to
Speaker 2: have more representation on the management committee. We will get
Speaker 2: more representation on the management committee, and we're pushing people forward.
Speaker 2: And I think if you if you look beyond the
Speaker 2: management Committee and some of the recent announcements, you know
Speaker 2: there are a lot of very very important jobs. You know,
Speaker 2: we shore going to women the leadership bench. There is
Speaker 2: growing in a very very good way. We'd all like
Speaker 2: it to go faster.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us, Richard Nade. They
Speaker 1: are the vice chairman of Goldman Sachs