Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Goldman loses in price stabilzation game

A great look at price stabilization from the NY Times. The case deals with Goldman Sachs' (and syndicate's) attempt to keep Lazard's stock price high.
"Last week, Goldman said in a filing that it was left with $15 million in losses after underwriting Lazard's initial public offering and trying in vain to prop up the stock as it began falling in the first days of trading"
Also later on in the article:
"According to the filing, Goldman had already accumulated 3.8 million shares, worth about $94 million, by the time stock dropped to $24.90. Goldman kept buying, at one point owning as much as 10 percent of Lazard, but it could not prevent the dam from bursting. Unwilling to take on even more risk, Goldman could not continue buying shares to stabilize the stock. But Goldman may not care so much about its trading losses. It split $42.7 million with six other firms for underwriting Lazard's offering.

Goldman proudly defends its failed buying spree by saying that it was going to bat for Lazard, but that is only half the story. Goldman was also buying to protect itself. Investors who had held on to their shares expecting them to go up - as Goldman had led them to believe they would - were livid."

No comments: