(Oct 25): Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has dropped in Southeast Asian stock and bond underwriting rankings since it helped arrange fundraising for scandal-plagued 1MDB in 2012. 

Goldman reaped $600 million in fees from helping 1MDB raise $6.5 billion in 2012 and 2013. Malaysian negotiators are now discussing reparations by the U.S. bank to the government of around $2 billion to $3 billion, people familiar said this week.

Goldman has slipped out of a Asean equity-related offerings league table this year, and slid to 17th from a top ranking in Southeast Asian dollar and euro bonds in 2012.

Goldman, which declined to comment on the settlement talks, has previously blamed its entanglement in 1MDB on its former Southeast Asia chairman, Tim Leissner, who pleaded guilty to violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act last year. 

Lawsuits over whether Malaysian financiers and officials plundered the investment company are still underway. While Southeast Asia is a tiny part of Goldman’s business, the bank’s top legal risks are probes and lawsuits in the U.S., Malaysia and elsewhere related to the 1MDB scandal, Bloomberg Intelligence wrote in an Oct. 23 report.

Goldman’s rivals gained as it slipped from seventh in the Asean equity, equity-linked and rights tables in 2014 to 17th in 2018 and was then unranked in 2019.  Competitors like Citigroup Inc. and top-ranked Credit Suisse Group AG gained. For Asia ex-Japan equity, equity-linked and rights
offerings as a whole, Goldman maintained its position. 

Goldman now ranks 17th, falling from first in 2012. Goldman’s climb up the Asean USD & EUR debt rankings when it arranged two bond sales for 1MDB proved fleeting.