Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon hopeful about IPOs

The upcoming spate of tech IPOs could help kickstart muted capital markets, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told CNBC’s David Faber.

Firms including chip designer Arm and Instacart have filed to go public, and companies that are mulling listings will watch how those IPOs go, Solomon said Thursday during the interview.

“Over the course of the next few months, especially if Arm and some of these other IPOs go well, I think you’re going to see a meaningful increase in activity,” Solomon said.

A rebound in IPOs and mergers would be welcome for Goldman and the rest of Wall Street, which has dealt with a dearth of activity in the past year. After coming off a record year for revenue in 2021, Solomon has had to contend with internal dissent and criticism over his decisions and leadership style in a series of unflattering articles.

Solomon addressed the negative coverage, saying repeatedly that he didn’t recognize the “caricature’ of himself portrayed in the stories.

“It’s not fun, you know, watching some of the personal attacks in the press,” Solomon said. “I don’t recognize the caricature that’s been painted of me. I have a lot of colleagues and clients I talked to, they don’t recognize that caricature either.”

During the wide-ranging interview, Solomon addressed tougher bank regulation, the paring back of Goldman’s ambitions in consumer finance, and the mergers market. Acquisitions will likely pick up as CEOs regain confidence in the coming months, he said.

“The sentiment that I’m hearing from CEOs globally is trying to get back at it,” Solomon said, though he cautioned that the mergers rebound would trail that of IPOs.