⚠ Buyers May Not BidLow threat

Goldman Sachs (GS) — threat to the moat

Goldman's last $6 billion of old private stakes will sell only if buyers bid at acceptable prices.

The remaining historical investments have to be sold, and the firm warns it may not get the price it wants: "buyers may not bid on these assets or bid at levels, or with terms, that are unacceptable"1.

Historical principal investments ($bn)9.4Start 20256.0End 2025Goldman Sachs Q4 2025 earnings presentation
$3.4bn sold in 2025.

The stakes left are the ones that were hardest to sell. About $6 billion remained at the end of 20252, after $9.4 billion at the start of the year.

The sale has already run a long way: historical principal investments fell by about $57.5 billion since 20193. The last few billion are usually the least liquid part of any portfolio being wound down, which is why the firm's own warning is worth taking at face value.

The firm already records the effect of slow sales. Its 2025 return on equity for the segment carried about 2.3 percentage points of drag from these investments and the FDIC assessment4. Each year the stakes stay, the drag stays too.

The cost of a slow sale is capital, not only marks. Asset & Wealth Management carried $24,666 million of average common equity in 20255. Historical principal investments still above $4 billion at the end of 2026 would mean the last part of the clean-up had stalled.

References
  1. ReportedThe remaining historical investments have to be sold, and the firm warns it may not get the price it wants: "buyers may not bid on these assets or bid at levels, or with terms, that are unacceptable".
    Goldman Sachs fourth-quarter 2025 earnings presentation and strategy update, Form 8-K exhibit 99.2 - Global Banking & Markets: league tables, wallet share, clients, financing and intermediation. — FY2025 · publ. 15 January 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedAbout $6 billion remained at the end of 2025, after $9.4 billion at the start of the year.
    Goldman Sachs fourth-quarter 2025 earnings presentation and strategy update, Form 8-K exhibit 99.2 - Global Banking & Markets: league tables, wallet share, clients, financing and intermediation. — FY2025 · publ. 15 January 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedThe sale has already run a long way: historical principal investments fell by about $57.5 billion since 2019.
    Goldman Sachs fourth-quarter 2025 earnings presentation and strategy update, Form 8-K exhibit 99.2 - Asset & Wealth Management: alternatives fundraising, fees, wealth, mandates and historical principal investments. — FY2025 · publ. 15 January 2026 · source ↗
  4. ReportedIts 2025 return on equity for the segment carried about 2.3 percentage points of drag from these investments and the FDIC assessment.
    Goldman Sachs fourth-quarter 2025 earnings presentation and strategy update, Form 8-K exhibit 99.2 - Global Banking & Markets: league tables, wallet share, clients, financing and intermediation. — FY2025 · publ. 15 January 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedAsset & Wealth Management carried $24,666 million of average common equity in 2025.
    Goldman Sachs Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - segment results on the basis restated in the fourth quarter of 2025: net revenues by line, pre-tax earnings, return on equity, average common equity, loans and assets by segment for 2023-2025 - Asset & Wealth Management and Platform Solutions segment results. — FY2023-FY2025 · publ. 25 February 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 28, 2026