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.