Billionaire investor Michael Price said the Goldman Sachs Group should divide its company into 3 separate entities because the investment bank may be getting too large.  Mr. Price currently is president of MFP Investors LLC.  He had been with Mutual Series from 1973 until 1996, when he oversaw the firm's merger into Franklin Templeton Investments.  During his tenure at Mutual Series, he served as a partner and, in 1988, became president and chairman.  He remained at Franklin Templeton until 2001, when he left to begin his own fund company.

“Goldman should split up into three parts - a banking business, a trading business and a money management business.”

During the TV interview on “Bloomberg Surveillance, Price noted that Goldman, by splitting itself into 3 entities, could “free up some capital” and trade at the equivalent of $250 a share.  Goldman spokesperson David Wells declined to comment.

BTW, Price made his reputation and fortune as a value investor in the 1980s by buying shares of beaten-down lenders and running some of the best-performing mutual funds in the U.S. - so he knows value.   [Bloomberg, 12/2]