Goldman Awards Blankfein a Record $67.9 Million Bonus for 2007

Goldman Awards Blankfein a Record $67.9 Million Bonus for 2007


Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the world's biggest securities firm, awarded Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein $67.9 million in cash, restricted stock and options for 2007, topping last year's record-setting $53.4 million.

Blankfein, 53, will receive $26.8 million in cash, 112,675 restricted stock units and 322,104 options, the New York-based firm said today in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Goldman shattered Wall Street profit records for the fourth-consecutive year even as rivals such as Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch & Co. suffered mortgage-related losses. Goldman set aside $20.2 billion to pay employee salaries, benefits and bonuses, 23 percent more than last year.

``There are successful people and then there's extraordinary success, and they're trying to show as a firm that they're really extraordinary,'' said Jeanne Branthover, managing director of Boyden World Corp., an executive recruiter in New York. ``They're rewarding him for leading such a fabulously successful ship.''

Blankfein's pay, up 27 percent from 2006, contrasts with peers at Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns Cos. who gave up year- end bonuses after posting losses related to subprime mortgages.

Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack and Bear Stearns CEO James ``Jimmy'' Cayne, who each received $40 million last year, aren't taking any bonuses after reporting the first-ever quarterly losses in the firms' history.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which reported a 5 percent increase in 2007 net income, boosted CEO Richard Fuld's year-end stock bonus by 4 percent to $35 million this year.

Metals Salesman

Last year, Goldman gave Blankfein $27.3 million in cash, $15.7 million in restricted stock and options to buy shares that the firm valued at almost $10.5 million at the time. Added to his $600,000 salary, he made a total of $54 million. Blankfein's salary is unchanged this year.

``Goldman Sachs are just in a league in their own, they're an outlier when it comes to compensation,'' said Henry Higdon, managing partner of recruiting firm Higdon Partners LLC in New York.

Blankfein, a Harvard-educated lawyer who grew up in Brooklyn and joined Goldman as a metals salesman in 1982, took over as CEO from Henry Paulson last year. Paulson, now U.S. Treasury secretary, took his bonus in stock during each of the last three years he headed the firm. By contrast, Blankfein has taken some of his bonuses in cash.

Goldman rose $6.93, or 3.4 percent, to $209.60 at 4:05 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has risen 5.1 percent this year, compared with a 23 percent decline in the 12-member Amex Securities Broker/Dealer Index.

BLOOMBERG