Goldman Sachs Asset Management is to acquire Standard & Poor’s model portfolio business.
Under the terms of the deal, Goldman Sachs will acquire Standard & Poor’s Investment Advisory Services (SPIAS) from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The amount Goldman Sachs was set to pay for the business was not disclosed.
‘[Goldman Sachs] is acquiring a compelling platform for growth and a differentiated team with a strong long-term track record of performance. The team’s expertise will allow us to deliver greater value to the financial intermediaries and institutions we serve,’ said Timothy O’Neill and Eric Lane, co-heads of the consumer and investment management division at Goldman Sachs.
According to Barron’s, which first reported on the transaction, Goldman Sachs will keep SPIAS’s open architecture model portfolios but will add its own model portfolios with proprietary Goldman Sachs ETFs that will have no overlay fees.
The acquisition, which is expected to be finalized in the first half of 2019, will allow Goldman Sachs to expand its multi-asset offerings and rules-based equity strategies.
'We look forward to becoming part of one of the world’s leading asset managers, which will deliver additional resources to benefit our clients and address their changing needs,’ said Michael Thompson, president and chairman of SPIAS.
SPIAS has equity portfolios as well as multi-asset class model portfolios that use ETFs and mutual funds. The firm advised on $33 billion in assets as of December 31, 2018. The firm did not return a request for additional comment before publication.
Last week, Goldman Sachs also cut 65 individuals as part of an annual review, a spokesman for the firm confirmed. He declined to comment on the amount of layoffs in the asset management business.
Goldman Sachs’s consumer and investment management division had $1.5 trillion in assets under management at the end of December 2018.
