Major block deals involved more than $ 10 billion in shares sold by Goldman: media

(Reuters) – Big block deals on Friday, causing a wave of sales in a handful of companies, were boosted by sales of more than $ 10 billion made by Goldman Sachs Group Inc, the media reported on Saturday.

ViacomCBS and Discovery shares fell about 27% each on Friday, while the United States shares of China Baidu and Tencent Music plummeted during the week, falling 33.5% and 48.5%, respectively, of Tuesday’s closing levels.

Eric Handler of MKM Partners, which covers Discovery, said on Friday that large blocks of shares in Viacom and Discovery were put on the market on Friday, probably exacerbating the declines.

A customer email seen by Bloomberg News said Goldman sold $ 6.6 billion in shares of Baidu Inc, Tencent Music Entertainment Group and Vipshop Holdings Ltd, before the American market opened on Friday, the report said. on Saturday. bloom.bg/3lYOrZm

Then Goldman sold $ 3.9 billion in shares of ViacomCBS Inc, Discovery Inc, Farfetch Ltd, iQIYI Inc and GSX Techedu Inc, according to the report.

A source familiar with the matter said on Saturday that Goldman was involved in major bloc negotiations.

Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

The Financial Times reported that Morgan Stanley sold $ 4 billion in shares earlier in the day, followed by another $ 4 billion in the afternoon.

Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

The Financial Times reported that Goldman told counterparts that sales were driven by “forced deleveraging”, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

CNBC reported here that the selling pressure was due to the liquidation of positions by the family office Archegos Capital Management, citing a source with direct knowledge of the situation. An Archegos person who answered the phone declined to comment.