A share price that has more than doubled since the targets were set leaves the one-off scheme near its ceiling, with David Solomon in line for the largest slice
Goldman Sachs is set to hand roughly 20 of its most senior executives share awards worth more than $500mn at the current share price, with chief executive David Solomon in line for more than $100mn, according to reports by Bloomberg and the Financial Times published on October 8. The payout comes from Shareholder Value Creation awards the board granted in late 2021 and early 2022, whose five-year performance period for the original grants ends in late October 2026.
The final value is not yet fixed. It depends on Goldman’s share price and on how its total shareholder return ranks against peers when the measurement period closes.
How the awards work
The board first granted the awards to Solomon and John Waldron, the president and chief operating officer, on October 21, 2021, according to a Form 8-K filed the next day. Solomon received 73,264 performance share units with a grant-date fair value of $17.0mn. Waldron received 48,843 units valued at $11.4mn.
The unit count was set from a base price of $409.48, the average Goldman close over the five trading days to October 21, 2021. Half of each award depends on absolute total shareholder return over five years. A cumulative return of 47 per cent earns 25 per cent of target, 60 per cent earns 50 per cent, and 75 per cent or more earns 75 per cent. The filing put the top threshold at a share price plus dividends of about $717.
The other half depends on relative return against Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, BNY Mellon and Wells Fargo, with the same 25, 50 and 75 per cent steps at the 40th, 65th and 80th percentiles. Delivered shares are then locked up for a further year.
In January 2022 the board extended awards “in the same form” across its management committee, including revenue division heads and the leaders of its control, finance and operating divisions, according to a filing dated January 28 that year. Goldman said it was responding to shareholder feedback that the scheme’s objectives should apply across the senior team.
The arithmetic
Goldman closed at $882.59 on October 8, 116 per cent above the 2021 base price before counting dividends and well past the $717 top threshold for the absolute leg.
By BCR’s reading of the filing’s tables, each leg pays up to 75 per cent of target, so the two together can deliver one and a half times the target units. On that basis, Solomon’s 73,264 units would become about 109,900 shares, worth roughly $97mn at the October 8 close. That is nearly six times the grant-date value disclosed in 2021 and close to the figure of more than $100mn reported. Waldron’s equivalent would be about $65mn.
The relative leg is the open variable. Goldman has not disclosed where its five-year return ranks against the six peer banks.
A second layer of retention pay
The awards sit on top of a separate retention grant. In January 2025 Goldman gave Solomon and Waldron 130,508 restricted stock units each, with a grant-date value of $80mn and a five-year vesting period, according to a Form 8-K filed on January 17, 2025. The board said at the time that it wanted to retain the pair as its senior leadership team. Proxy adviser Glass Lewis recommended that shareholders vote against the bank’s executive pay that spring.
Goldman has said the 2021 scheme was meant to tie pay to “rigorous performance thresholds”, secure leadership continuity and improve retention as competition for talent intensified. The final number will be fixed when the performance period closes in late October, and the shares will then carry a further year of transfer restrictions.