June 23 (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs (GS.N) is likely to take a large writedown for its $2.2 billion acquisition of fintech lender GreenSky after seeking to divest the business it bought in 2021, CNBC reported on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the sale process.
One bidder said GreenSky’s loan origination platform is worth roughly $300 million, while another said it was worth closer to $500 million, according to the report.
CNBC added the bids for the platform, which facilitates home improvement loans to consumers, were coming in well below Goldman’s expectations.
Shares of Goldman were down about 1.4% in mid-morning trading.
“We’re pleased with the participation by bidders, we’re in the middle of the process and we’ll learn more as we go forward,” a Goldman spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters, without revealing any details about the potential writedown it is expected to take.
The bank has been running a sale process for GreenSky, and may take a writedown on the $500 million of goodwill, or the premium it paid above the assets’ book value, Goldman President and Chief Operating Officer John Waldron told investors at a conference in June.
KKR (KKR.N), Apollo Global Management (APO.N), Sixth Street Partners, Warburg Pincus and Synchrony Bank were among the asset managers and lenders involved in the first round of bids in June, the CNBC report said.
(This story has been corrected to clarify that the reported valuation is for GreenSky’s loan origination unit, not the entire business, in paragraph 2)
Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Jaiveer Shekhawat; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli
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