Goldman Sachs to plan 30% job cuts in Asia

Goldman Sachs will cut about 30% of the jobs in Asia. The US bank would be to announce the cutting of about 30% of its workforce in Asia, excluding Japan. Goldman, whose investment banking revenue fell 11 per cent to US$1.79 billion in the second quarter, is reducing the number of bankers working on mergers and acquisitions, and equity and debt capital market deals, Reuters said, citing unnamed sources. 

A Goldman Sachs spokesman declined to comment. In 2015, Goldman reduced the number of its investment bankers in Singapore, a hub for Southeast Asia, to about 35 from 50, several sources said. The cutbacks are expected to come later this year.

Goldman’s total value of merger and acquisition deals across the Asia-Pacific region has dropped to $572.9 billion so far this year, from $745.7 billion in the same period of 2015, according to Thomson Reuters data.

“It is not out of expectation, although I’m surprised to hear that they proposed to lay off such a big number of bankers,”said Jerry Chang, managing director of headhunter Baron & Co.