Goldman Sachs combining its private-investing units: WSJ

(Reuters) – Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc is combining its private-investing arms, with the resulting new division to have about $140 billion in assets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The bank is looking to combine four different units that invest in private companies, real estate and other hard-to-access deals, according to the report.

Goldman said it had no comment.

The core of the new division will be its existing merchant-banking unit, which has about $100 billion invested in private assets, according to the report.

Joining that unit will be the “special situations group,” which the newspaper described as an opportunistic portfolio of about $30 billion, along with Goldman’s strategic investing group that makes smaller bets on financial technology startups.

Both groups are currently part of the company’s trading division and invest Goldman’s own money.

The new unit will also include private-equity and real-estate groups that are now part of the bank’s asset-management division and invest clients’ money, the Journal said.

The company is also planning to raise new funds, particularly in real estate, and may do a fundraising this year for a real-estate equity fund, its first since the financial crisis, according to the report.