Goldman Said to Earn $500 Million Arranging Malaysia Bond

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. made about $500 million arranging three bond sales in the past year for 1Malaysia Development Bhd., the state investment fund led by Prime Minister Najib Razak, said a person familiar with the matter. The total is almost as much as Malaysia, Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy, pays each month on its debt and compares with Goldman’s record $694 million of global bond underwriting fees in the first quarter. Goldman, the securities firm with the fastest-growing investment-banking fees, arranged $6.5 billion of bond sales for the fund.  Relationships are what I’ll attribute these wins to,” said SMU Senior Lecturer of Finance Ang Ser-Keng. “If they wanted to issue a bond very quickly, maybe Goldman had the appetite and balance sheet to do the deal,” he added.