Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon obtained the birthday current of a lifetime on Friday because the financial institution introduced he had raked in a wallet-busting $39 million paycheck final yr.
Solomon, who turned 63 Friday, obtained a 26% hike from what he picked up in 2023 — pocketing a $2 million base wage, and an $8.3 million money bonus, with the remainder paid in inventory choices.
He will even earn an $80 million retention bonus if he stays with the financial institution for one more 5 years, Goldman stated within the submitting.
The Wall Avenue large made the disclosure two days after it posted surging full-year income pushed by a revival in M&A exercise and rising optimism in regards to the incoming administration’s financial insurance policies.
The retention bonus means Solomon will tighten his grip on the financial institution as he seems to be to remain within the high job till the tip of the last decade.
His would-be successor, president and chief working officer John Waldron, 55, will even pocket the identical sum if he stays with Goldman till 2030.
Waldron has been in his place since 2018 and is broadly seen as Solomon’s closest confidant, having beforehand served because the co-head of funding banking at 200 West Avenue.
The choice, signed off by the monetary large’s compensation committee, comes after Waldron briefly held talks about becoming a member of Marc Rowan’s Apollo World Administration, in keeping with a report final month by the Wall Avenue Journal.
The transfer by the board is being seen as a bid to maintain Waldron with the financial institution that he joined in 2000. The announcement comes 24 hours after Goldman’s rank-and-file had been knowledgeable of the dimensions of their 2024 bonuses.
The scale of the bonuses weren’t disclosed.
“The agency is delivering sturdy efficiency and the board is decided to keep up our momentum, guarantee stability, and maintain in place a stable succession plan,” stated Goldman Sachs spokesperson Tony Fratto.
“The board can be evolving compensation to boost the agency’s potential to proceed to draw and retain the most effective expertise at a time when the competitors for Goldman Sachs expertise is very fierce, together with from asset managers and different non-banks,” he added.
Goldman’s inventory worth has shot up by almost 50% over the previous yr and is up by 174% since Solomon took over from his long-serving predecessor Lloyd Blankfein in 2018.
Shares had been up 1.7% in Friday morning buying and selling, at $624.43.
Over the previous two years, Solomon has refocused the financial institution’s efforts on its conventional funding banking actions after racking up billions of {dollars} in losses on its shopper banking arm, Marcus.
His reign has additionally been dogged by adverse headlines about his DJing facet hustle, the place he appeared beneath his home music moniker D-Sol, and his frequent use of company plane.
However the newest monetary outcomes seem to have soothed considerations with buyers, with Solomon eyeing one other 5 years on the helm of the American monetary titan.
“I’ve received an incredible job and I’ll be the CEO so long as the board needs me to be,” he stated at a Reuters convention in New York final month.