Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein joins the billionaire club

By Lianna Brinded


Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs since 2006, is now a billionaire.

The legendary Wall Street titan, who grew up in a housing project in Brooklyn and ended up earning degrees from Harvard University, has seen his net worth surge to $1.1 billion (£704 million).

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the massive surge in his wealth is due to him being the largest individual shareholder in investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, which manages nearly $911.5 billion (£583 billion) in assets.

Goldman Sachs' share price has quadrupled since it went public in 1999. Blankfein has a $500 million (£320 million) stake in the group. His ownership of 2.24 million shares makes him the bank's largest stockholder. He also has around $600 million (£384 million) from a real estate and investment portfolio.

On top of that, he has made $126.6 million (£81 million) in compensation over the last four years, which seems like pocket money in comparison to the rest of his wealth.

It's no wonder that Goldman Sachs' share price shot up over the past few years. In its second quarter this year, earnings came in stronger than expected. The investment bank reported a 13 per cent rise in investment-banking revenues, when compared to the same period last year.

In the investment management division, revenues were $1.65 billion, or 14 per cent higher than the year-ago quarter and 4 per cent higher than last quarter. The bank said that was due to higher fees.