Goldman Sachs asset arm faces large paper loss on Venezuelan bond

Goldman Sachs’ asset management division is likely to be nursing a multimillion-dollar paper loss on a controversial Venezuelan bond purchase it made this summer after the country abruptly announced that it was seeking to restructure its foreign debts. Ricardo Penfold, a senior portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, earlier this year swooped on a big slice of a bond issued by PDVSA, Venezuela’s state oil company, people familiar with the matter say. Mr Penfold paid $865m for bonds with a face value of $2.8bn — a price of just under 31 cents on the dollar — reflecting the elevated risks of a default even at the time. More…