Goldman to buy Asian assets

Goldman to buy Asian assets

SINGAPORE (AFP): U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs is creating a multi-million dollar recovery fund for Asian assets, press reports said Thursday.

Along with the fund, the firm is placing its best people in the region in its pursuit of mergers and acquisitions, Goldman Sachs co-chairman Jon Corzine and Goldman Sachs' Asia managing director Philip Murphy said.

"We have an enormous amount invested in this city and Asia generally," Corzine said in an interview with local media.

"A recovery fund would be an incremental aspect of an already very large presence in Asia. We do not want to be seen as sweeping in to pick up cheap assets," he said.

He declined to give figures for the fund, but said that Goldman "typically likes to start small" and that the fund would tap private equity mostly from the firm and its clients.

Corzine denied talk of layoffs at Goldman Sachs, which employs 1,500 people in Asia. Its Hong Kong staff numbers 600, with 170 in Singapore.