Sixth Street-led consortium in exclusive talks to buy Goldman’s GreenSky-source

Sept 19 (Reuters) – A consortium led by investment firm Sixth Street Partners has entered exclusive talks to acquire Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s (GS.N) home improvement lender GreenSky, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The consortium, which includes Pacific Investment Management and KKR & Co (KKR.N), prevailed over a rival bid from private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc (APO.N) in an auction for GreenSky, the sources said.

The transaction would be worth about $500 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported earlier that Sixth Street’s consortium was in advanced talks for a deal.

The amount would value GreenSky substantially lower than the $2.24 billion all-stock deal that Goldman inked to buy it in September 2021. The deal value had dropped to $1.7 billion by the time the acquisition was completed in March 2022 as Goldman’s shares slid.

The sources requested anonymity ahead of an official announcement. Goldman Sachs declined to comment, while representatives for the investment firms either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

GreenSky’s divestment is part of Goldman’s broader retrenchment from its consumer business, which has lost $3 billion in the last three years. It also offloaded the bulk of its unsecured consumer loans, after halving this kind of lending last year.

Goldman acquired GreenSky at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic which kept consumers at home and prompted many of them to splash out on renovations.

GreenSky’s business weakened as the pandemic subsided, and high interest rates and soaring prices for building materials have weighed on home-renovation lending.

Goldman took a $504 million writedown on GreenSky in its second-quarter earnings, and analysts have warned further charges could be necessary.

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