Piece of FICC

18 December 2007 By Rob Cox Follow @rob1cox

The firm s fourthquarter results cement a 23% increase in pay for the year, a 6% raise per employee. That s a hard act for Wall Street to follow even Lehman kept per capita pay flat. This gives Goldman a further advantage in the talent war just when the going gets tough.

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Goldman Sachs reported fourthquarter net income of $3.2bn, or $7.01 per share, beating analyst estimates and 2% higher than the final quarter of 2006. The New York based firm's quarterly revenue, net of interest expense, came in at $10.74bn, up 14% from last year.

Net revenues in the firm's investment banking unit were down 8% from the previous quarter, but up 48% compared to the last quarter of 2006. For the year, Goldman's investment banking unit produced net revenues of $7.56bn 34% higher than in 2006.

Net revenues from the firm's trading and principal investment unit, which includes credit products and derivatives that have put a damper on other Wall Street banks' earnings this quarter, were down 16% from the previous quarter at $6.93bn. The sale of 14 power plants added $800m to the unit's bottom line. For the year, net revenues were $31.23bn, 22% higher than 2006.

The company's asset management and securities unit showed the least gain, racking up $7.2bn in net revenues in 2007, up 11% from the previous year.

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