South Africa: Goldman Sachs Risks Reputation in Questionable Empowerment Deal

opinion

Johannesburg — THERE are other issues buzzing around ArcelorMittal SA's astounding deal with Imperial Crown Trading announced last week.

One is the company's choice of adviser: Goldman Sachs. Internationally, Goldman is in a public relations war. It is accused of two noxious transactions. The first is that it helped hide the level of Greece's government debt. The second is more complex and involves a collateralised debt obligation (CDO) fund - the things that brought the global banking system to its knees. This CDO was sold in cahoots with a big hedge fund to unsuspecting European banks, one of which had to be bailed out. The case was settled for 500m without acknowledgement of liability, but Goldman's share price took a big hit.

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