Goldman Recent Asset Sales: An Undercover Capital Raise?

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) is rumoured this morning to be planning the sale of its hedge fund administration unit to State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT). The move has been cited by many as an attempt to get out of the hedge fund business and at the same time out from under the regulator's gaze.

Though that may be part of the investment bank's reasoning behind the move, there is at least one other glaring possibility. Goldman may simply to be trying to increase its level of capital holdings. The Basel III rules will begin to come into effect at...