Goldman Sachs to Offer Common Stock in Secondary Offering

Goldman Sachs

(GS) - Get Report

said Wednesday that it will offer 40 million shares of its common stock in a secondary offering.

Sumitomo Bank Capital Markets

, a unit of

Sumitomo Bank

, Japan's second-largest bank, will sell 12.6 million shares, leaving it with 16.2 million shares or a 3.6% stake in the investment firm, while

Kamehameha Activities Association

will sell 11 million shares, or almost exactly half of its stake, leaving it with 2.5%.

Former partners of the firm will offer 16.4 million shares, including as many as four million shares held by former retired partners.

In a filing with the

Securities and Exchange Commission

, Goldman Sachs said there are three objectives for the offering: increasing the number of shares outstanding in the public market, broadening the ownership of the firm's common stock and providing an orderly entry of new shares into the stock market.

In May 1999, New York-based Goldman Sachs went

public, one of the last top financial services firms to do so, and sold 69 million shares priced at $53 each. That offering had been postponed due to poor market conditions.

Shares of Goldman Sachs closed Wednesday trading at 95 15/16, up 1 or 1%.