The Goldman Sachs Group is a global investment banking, securities, and investment management firm, providing services to corporations, financial institutions, governments, and high-net-worth individuals worldwide. The firm operates in three segments: investment banking, trading, and principal investments, and asset management and securities services. The investment banking segment provides financial advisory services with respect to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate defense activities, restructurings, spin-offs, and underwriting services such as public offerings and private placements of common and preferred stock, convertible and exchangeable securities, investment-grade debt, high-yield debt, sovereign, emerging market debt, municipal debt, bank loans, asset-backed securities, and real estate-related securities. This division seeks to serve in the clean-tech and renewable, consumer retail, healthcare, real estate, natural resources, media and telecom, and other industries. The trading and principal investments segment engage in market making in, trading of and investing in fixed income and equity products, currencies, commodities, clearing client transactions on stock, options and futures exchanges, and making principal investments directly and through funds that the company raises and manages. The asset management and securities services segment provide investment advisory, equity research, and financial planning services such as prime brokerage, financing services, and securities lending services. Goldman Sachs was established in 1869 and is headquartered in New York City, New York with offices throughout the world.