Goldman Sachs is planning to lay off 30% of its investment banking staff in Asia (excluding Japan), where the firm currently employs around 300 people.
Most of the employees being laid off are from the Singapore and Hong Kong offices. However, staff in other offices in the region will be affected as well. In total, approximately 90 bankers will be made redundant.
In effort to expand in Asia and take advantage of the opportunities, Goldman spent a number years building its presence in the region. However, the increased presence did not lead to enough profit, due to market conditions and tough competition from local banks.
This year, there has been a decrease in the number of deals/offerings in Asia, as well as the revenue bankers earned from IPOs, M&A deals and debt offerings. Goldman Sachs also lost out to local competitors; for example in Hong Kong 7 of the top 10 IPOs this year were handled by Chinese banks (as per Bloomberg), and the ranking for Goldman is the lowest since 2008, as far as equity offerings in Asia are concerned.