In 2007, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised one of the biggest private-equity funds ever and nine years later, it is readying a sequel more tailored for the times, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Goldman soon will begin marketing a new corporate-buyout fund of between $5 billion and $8 billion, its first such fund since the financial crisis. It is aiming for an initial close by the end of the year. The effort shows Goldman’s commitment to a corner of Wall Street that many rivals have abandoned. But it also looks very different than Goldman’s past funds, and reflects the impact of regulators, who have tried to discourage banks from risky investing. For one thing, the new buyout fund is smaller than prior ones, less than half the $20 billion Goldman raised in 2007 for GS Capital Partners VI. And Goldman will contribute just a tiny slice of its own capital this time, the people said, to comply with post-crisis rules meant to make banks safer.
