Goldman Sachs Raises $1.91 Billion Selling Shares in ICBC

June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which wants to return $10 billion this month to the U.S. government, raised HK$14.8 billion ($1.91 billion) by selling shares of Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. after the stock jumped 29 percent in two months.

The New York-based firm sold 3.03 billion Hong Kong-traded shares, or a 0.9 percent stake in the Chinese bank, at HK$4.88 apiece, according to a pricing document e-mailed to fund managers today. That’s 5 percent below the stock’s HK$5.11 closing price yesterday.

Goldman Sachs is selling almost the entire stake it’s free to divest under a revised lockup agreement with ICBC. The fifth- largest U.S. bank by assets got 26 percent more for its ICBC stock than Allianz SE and American Express Co. received when they sold shares in April.

“It’s very opportunistic, and obviously they’re not the first to come to the market to do that,” said Douglas Ciocca, a managing director at Renaissance Financial Corp. in Leawood, Kansas, which manages $1.7 billion including Goldman Sachs shares. “It’s a prudent reallocation of capital because they still have a big remaining stake in there.”

Goldman Sachs raised $5.75 billion in April by selling shares in itself and said it would use the proceeds, “plus additional resources,” to repay the $10 billion the company received from the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program in October.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aFh.VVAk.yRg

You should think twice about the fact why they are selling their stake NOW !

 

It's for this month's bonus pool.

 

Probably not a bad idea to fade this huge china rally

 

LOL!!!

 

I vote it is to repay TARP funds.

BTW, I don't believe they sold their entire stake - only about 1/4 to 1/3. Verification?