The New Zealand arm of global investment bank Goldman Sachs made a bumper profit last year but it also faces a potential liability relating to holiday pay.
Financial accounts for the business show it made $13.67 million in the year to December 31 - more than double the $5.18m it made in 2019.
That saw it pay a dividend of $12m for the year after paying no dividend in 2019.
Goldman Sachs NZ is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Goldman Sachs Holdings ANZ. Its ultimate parent is the New York Stock Exchange-listed Goldman Sachs Group.
The accounts also show Goldman faces a potential liability relating to its exclusion of "discretionary" bonus payments from calculations for entitlements to the Holidays Act.
In 2020 the Employment Court found that the incentive scheme payments of a particular employer, even if described as discretionary, must be included in various calculations under the Holidays Act.
However, the Goldman Sachs report noted the case is headed back to court.
"... the Court of Appeal is due to hear an appeal against the Employment Court's decision in July 2021 (noting also that the outcome of such appeal could be appealed to the Supreme Court)."
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Advertise with NZME.Due to the possibility of further court action the report said that the liability could not be reliably determined until the outcome of the Court of Appeal decision and possibly the Supreme Court decision, if it was appealed further, was known.
The investment bank's revenue rose from $23.65m in 2019 to $40.67m in 2020. Its 2020 revenue all came from investment banking with no service fee income.
Operating expenses also rose from $16.5m to $21.2m largely driven by a rise in investment banking expenses which increased from $2.575m to $7.968m.
But the cost of staff salaries, bonus payments and other employee benefits were down from $7.665m to $7.095m.
The accounts also show its auditing costs jumped over the year from $50,000 to $66,000.
Goldman Sachs NZ warned that there continued to be uncertainty regarding the impact of Covid-19 on the near term economic outlook even with the early efforts to distribute vaccines.
"The company has been monitoring its operational and financial performance and the extent of the impact thereon will depend on future developments including the duration and continued spread of the outbreak."
Group profit
In January Goldman Sachs Group reported net revenues of US$44.56 billion and net earnings of US$9.46 billion for the year ended December 31, 2020.
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Advertise with NZME.Its net revenue was 22 per cent higher than 2019 and its highest annual net revenue in 11 years.
