Goldman Sachs Group Inc. invited 94 employees to become partners, a designation that would give them a bigger share of a bonus pool that is likely to shrink this year.
In 2006, the last year Goldman named partners, it invited 115 people to join the partnership ranks.
This year's invitees include Jan Hatzius, Goldman's chief U.S. economist, and L. Brooks Entwistle, who runs its banking operations in India.
The list of people invited to become partners was published in an internal memo confirmed by Andrea Rachman, a Goldman spokeswoman. The appointments will take effect Nov. 30, when its fiscal year will end.
The partner title is a vestige of the company's days as Wall Street's last remaining partnership, before it went public in 1999 after 130 years of private ownership.
Rewards for the partners are likely to diminish this year after Goldman transformed itself into a bank holding company, raised more than $10 billion of equity from private investors, and took $10 billion from the federal government. Its shares have fallen 56% this year. Goldman's profits in the first nine months of its fiscal year fell 47% from a record level a year earlier, to $4.44 billion. The amount of money set aside for compensation and benefits has dropped 32% from a year earlier, to $11.4 billion. The new partners will raise Goldman's total to 443.
