Goldman Sachs and SG completed a blow-out combined €1.6bn ($1.4bn) equity and convertible bond sale in Thomson Multimedia, the French media and consumer group, in two hours on Monday, leaving the banks who had been pre-marketing the deal without any fees.

On February 12, the French government announced that it was going to sell down part of its 38% Thomson stake. A syndicate of banks, including Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, BNP Paribas, UBS Warburg and Morgan Stanley started pre-marketing the deal. However, the deal was then executed in a matter of hours solely by Goldman and SG.