Goldman Sachs to unveil $3bn writedown - UK paper

LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) - Investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) will announce asset writedowns of $3 billion when it posts earnings on Tuesday, Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported, without naming sources.

The company will report a fall of about 50 percent in first-quarter earnings, the newspaper said.

Goldman Sachs was not immediately available for comment.

Goldman will take a hit of around $1.6 billion in its leveraged loan business, $1.1 billion in connection with assets owned by its private equity arm and will have to writedown the value of its stake in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) (601398.SS: Quote, Profile, Research), the story said.

Shares in ICBC have fallen around 14 percent in the last two months.

Goldman will point out that its exposure to the sub-prime mortgage market remains minimal, the paper said, according to unnamed people close to the bank.

(Reporting by Chris Wills and Mathieu Robbins, Editing by Jason Neely)

(chris.wills@reuters.com; 0044 (0)20 7542 5331; Reuters Messaging: chris.wills.reuters.com@reuters.net))