Banks often end up with assets that you would not expect. It’s a phenomenon that is clearly on the rise as borrowers struggle to pay back their loans.
Perhaps the most famous example is Deutsche Bank’s ownership of Las Vegas joint The Cosmopolitan, which has prompted endless jokes about its exposure to casino banking.
Some of these holdings can be surprisingly successful. For example, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners owns a 66% stake in Alliance Films, which in turn owns Momentum Films – the production company that financed last year’s all-conquering, Oscar-laden release The King’s Speech.
Alliance also backed an Academy Award contender for 2012, the Steve McQueen-directed Shame, starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan.
On the back of that good news, Goldman has apparently put its stake up for sale.
Perhaps appropriately, Goldman is not selling that part of the Alliance – once a production-to-cable network conglomerate – that owns a 50% stake in global TV franchise Crime Scene Investigation, or CSI as it is commonly known.
Senior management at Goldman probably feel that they have taken part in their own reality TV version of that show, given the number of investigations the firm has gone through, from Congress to the SEC, since the sub-prime crisis.
Other banks are more than happy to hold on to some of these non-core assets. On a recent trip to a European capital, Euromoney was advised by a banking friend to stay in a certain hotel. Why, we asked. "Because we own it," came the reply. "And it’s one of the few performing assets we’ve got right now."
