(Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is sparking what could be a busy end of the year for Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The bank’s backlogs are “strong” and it’s seeing more deal conversations taking place as central bank moves help stimulate markets, President John Waldron said in a Bloomberg Television interview Thursday.
“We actually see a pickup in risk appetite,” said Waldron, who was co-head of the investment-banking unit before rising to the firm’s No. 2 role last year. “What’s happened with the Federal Reserve and the central banks around the world in terms of injecting more liquidity into the system and being relatively dovish has helped, particularly the U.S. consumer.”
Goldman Sachs has joined other big banks in seeing a slump in trading revenue and investment-banking fees in the first nine months of the year. Still, a strong close to the year could lift merger and acquisitions volume above 2018 and make it the most active year since 2015.
While Waldron said he wouldn’t comment on reports that Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. is considering going private in what would likely be the biggest leveraged buyout in history, he noted that there’s “enormous liquidity in the market that could support big transactions.”
“The markets are pretty wide open, activity levels are high, strategic activity is coming back,” Waldron said.
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