Goldman Sachs Embarking On Buyout Blitz

Attention private equity funds and hedge funds acting like p.e. funds: Goldman Sachs has announced a one-two punch that it hopes will help become a bigger player in the lucrative buyout market. The first prong of its strategy involves the reopening of its $3.5 billion infrastructure in order to raise a total of $6 billion by the end of the year, according to a UBS research report. After a meeting last summer between UBS analyst Glenn Schorr and GS management, Schorr wrote, “the level of management enthusiasm for expansion into infrastructure has increased.” In the second prong, Goldman Sachs intends to prove its serious intentions to gain a bigger share in the buyout market by bringing aboard seven bankers for its global leveraged finance and high-yield bonds practices to be ready, willing and able when private equity firms come a-knocking in search of debt financing. The new arrivals come with impressive pedigree: Craig Packer from Credit Suisse will be managing director of high-yield capital markets; Kevin Lockhart from Morgan Stanley and Jeff Abt of Merrill Lynch as managing director in leveraged finance and loan capital markets, respectively. In addition, the four new loan capital markets v.ps. are Sheila MacGillicuddy from Merrill Lynch, Grant Moyer from Bank of America, and John Carron and Jeff Kelly, both of Morgan Stanley.