Source :R Sridharan, ET Now, May 21, 2010, 12.35am IST
Back in the late 70s, a relatively unknown Wall Street rejected job application from a young Harvard Law School graduate. But destiny had other plans.
In 1981, the Wall Street firm ended up buying the commodities trading firm, J Aron & Co, the young man, son of a postal worker, had joined. The firm was Goldman Sachs and the 20-something fella, Lloyd C Blankfein.
It's a bit ironic, then, that Blankfein should find himself steering Wall Street's most profitable firm through the worst crisis in its 140-year history. Recently in India Blankfein, 55, now chairman & CEO of Goldman Sachs, spoke exclusively to ET Now's R Sridharan on the SEC investigation into Goldman, the Euro crisis and the firm's India plans. Excerpts:
Q. Lloyd, it is interesting that you should be visiting India when there is so much happening back home. Tell us what's the reason?
Well, if I did not come to India, where else would I go? The fortunes of Goldman Sachs correlate with growth. India is one of the fast growing countries, which makes it one of the most important countries to us. If you think about the activities that we do as a firm, we help people raise capital, we help advice companies who want to expand their acquisition, we help people manage their money in risky assets. All those things are activities that are more conducive in growing economies and India is one of the most stable and growing economies in the world today.
Q. Goldman is, of course, the original emerging market bull. Have the recent events in the US and the Euro zone reinforced your faith even more in markets like India and China?
I will have to say that this crisis that has come by, has been quite validating for the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and other high-growth countries in the world, especially since as a concept BRICs was part reality, but also part hope. I think that reality has been validated, as there has been a real separation of fortunes between the emerging countries and the developed countries.
Q. You recently hired ICICI's Sonjoy Chatterjee as joint CEO of Goldman Sachs India. What's the big plan that is going to unfold in India going ahead?
The big plan is to make ourselves bigger and more important to the Indian economy, to help our clients around the world enter into India, to help Indians fulfill their destiny as important players in the global economy.
Q. Back in the US, your firm stands accused of misleading investors. How do you think this SEC investigation is going to end? With a settlement?
At this point we cannot be sure. We are at odds with the SEC on a specific transaction involving only two institutional investors on a very, very narrow fact pattern. We have a disagreement on certain facts and how the law is applied and it would be our intention to resolve this as soon as possible.
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