Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) may be the most hated large financial firm in the world. That does not seem to have hurt its business prospects. It may even help them. Companies who need corporate finance services, investment banking help, and trading prowess may look at Goldman’s image as a good thing. Aggressive behavior is often prized by clients.
A new Bloomberg poll shows that “Fifty-four percent of respondents to the global poll of traders, investors and analysts conducted May 9-10 have an unfavorable opinion of the New York-based bank, more than double the negative rating for JPMorgan Chase & Co.”
Despite Goldman’s reputation problem, it made money every trading day of the first quarter of 2011. Goldman ranked third in M&A transactions in the first quarter. If it were not for Morgan Stanley’s (NYSE: MS) role in the AT&T (NYSE: T) effort to buy T-Mobile, Goldman may have held the top spot. Goldman’s private equity activity and its corporate loan efforts drove strong first quarter earnings. The firm made $4.38 per share in the period against Wall St. expectations of $3.65.
Reputation may be one of the worst indicators of business success, so the negative attitudes about Goldman means very little. In Fortune’s “Most Admired Companies List”, Microsoft (NASDAQ; MSFT) is among the top ten. Its management has been continually criticized for poor performance, and its share price has been a sore spot on Wall St. for years. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), another underachiever in both stock and operational performance, ranks high on the list. Its management has been considered ineffectual in its efforts to rekindle growth at its flagship US Wal-Mart operations. GE (NYSE: GE) is also high on the rankings, despite repeated calls for the replacement of its CEO Jeff Immelt due to his track record of poor strategic decisions and poor earnings.
The irony about Goldman’s poor “reputation” is that the devil is often a better partner than the friendly neighbor down the street, particularly when no holds behavior is key to success.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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