A pair of senior Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executives are betting that Europe’s long-awaited revival in infrastructure spending and dealmaking will help power regional growth at the Wall Street bank.
As economies like Germany and France deploy billions to bolster defense capabilities and modernize infrastructure, Anthony Gutman and Kunal Shah are hunting for ways to pick up market share. Alongside a surge in financing needed to facilitate that spending, the duo expect a pick-up in mergers and initial public offerings.
Gutman, a dealmaker behind some of Britain’s top transactions, and Shah, a trader who became one of the youngest partners ever at the Wall Street firm a decade ago, started in their new roles in January. As co-chief executive officers of Goldman Sachs International, they oversee Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where revenue jumped 14% to $7.30 billion in the first half, making it the bank’s fastest-growing region.
Goldman currently employs more than 9,000 staffers across Europe, a third of whom are based outside the UK. While London remains the main regional hub, the bank has set its sights on getting bigger in Frankfurt, Paris, and Milan to help further scale the business.
“We are doubling down on some of the strategic growth initiatives we’ve had for some time as a firm,” said Shah, 42, who is also the global co-head of Goldman’s fixed income, currencies and commodities business. “We think Europe can be at the center of a lot of these efforts.”
At the heart of the plans is the bank's newly-created capital-solutions group that helps connect providers of capital with those that need it. The unit combines capabilities from the bank’s financing group, financial-sponsors coverage in investment banking, and coverage of private equity firms from its fixed-income and equities trading group.
“We’re already seeing the early signs of big financing needs across European infrastructure and energy,” said Gutman, 51, who’s also global co-head of investment banking at Goldman. “You’ll see more to come in the next 12 to 24 months.”
But the enthusiasm doesn't come without risks. Policymakers across the region continue to warn that the euro-zone economy is likely to see slower growth in the coming months. The International Monetary Fund in June sounded the alarm that the continent risks drifting into stagnation without urgent action to tackle the trade tensions and low demand that are choking momentum.
Still, there are signs of green shoots, particularly in dealmaking activity, which has picked up after a slow start to the year. Just this month, Anglo American Plc offered to buy Teck Resources Ltd. to create a $50 billion mining giant, while buyout firm CapVest Partners snapped up German drugmaker Stada Arzneimittel AG for €10 billion ($11.8 billion).
“We think we’re primed for a significant cyclical upswing in investment banking activity across all our products,” Gutman said at Goldman’s Plumtree Court offices in London. “All of the ingredients are in place for it.”
IPO markets, too, are stirring. Goldman helped lead SMG Swiss Marketplace Group’s share sale that raised over $1 billion and is working on alarm firm Verisure Plc’s €3.1 billion listing in Stockholm, which would be Europe’s largest such deal in three years.
“We’ve got the busiest IPO market we’ve seen in the US for a long time. We think that’s likely to follow in Europe,” Gutman said. The pipeline over the next year looks “healthy” across multiple European listing venues, he added.
That would help fuel a rebound from the first half, Europe’s slowest in more than a decade, due in part to uncertainty related to US tariffs. But the volatility wrought by US President Donald Trump’s moves also pushed Goldman’s equity-trading revenue in the second quarter to a record.
Client engagement levels have continued to be elevated since then, Shah said. “We’ve continued at a steady, healthy rate; it’s off that peak, but still, up versus general trends.”
Speaking in their first interview since starting in their new roles, Gutman and Shah spotlighted the Middle East as a significant opportunity. They singled out asset and wealth management as key priorities, and said the bank is looking to add new offices and boost headcount.
The firm opened an Abu Dhabi office in 2023, and was the first bulge-bracket bank to get a regional headquarters license in Saudi Arabia. This year, it hosted an event in Abu Dhabi aimed at connecting hedge funds with local investors, while Goldman Sachs Asset Management secured the Public Investment Fund as an anchor investor in a new series of funds focused on the region.
State-backed entities like the PIF, which oversee over $4 trillion between them, are just part of the draw. Goldman is also bolstering its business of catering to wealthy individuals and families, who control over $1 trillion in the Middle East.
Here, it faces competition from rival firms, who’ve also been adding staff to the Gulf and courting investors, potentially pressuring fees and raising the cost of hiring.
In recent days, Goldman has also had to contend with the departure of Fadi Abuali, who was instrumental in expanding the regional franchise as co-chief for the Middle East and North Africa and ranked as one of the bank’s top asset-management executives.
Gutman and Shah, however, sounded a bullish note.
“It represents one of the most important fundraising opportunities in the world,” Gutman said. “But more broadly, we see real scope to partner with key clients there to grow our businesses.
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