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By Elisa Anzolin MILAN (Reuters) -The Giorgio Armani Foundation, key to the Italian fashion house's future and eventual planned sale, will be led by the late designer's partner and close confidante Pantaleo Dell'Orco as chair, a document seen by Reuters on Tuesday showed. Dell'Orco was left the largest portion of the company and main voting share when Armani died last month. He will head the board along with one of Armani's nephews and three independent members, according to a foundation filing obtained via a freedom of information request. The foundation is key to Armani's succession plan. His will unveiled the shock order to gradually sell the firm he founded to potential buyers including LVMH, L'Oreal and EssilorLuxottica, or seek a market listing. The designer, known in the industry as "King Giorgio", died on September 4, aged 91. He left the company to his heirs and the Foundation, which was set up in 2016 and chaired by Armani himself until his death. The foundation controls 30% of the voting rights of his business empire. It was created to protect Armani's legacy. Armani's business and life partner Dell'Orco already controls 40% of the luxury group's voting rights. Alongside him on the board will be Armani's nephew Andrea Camerana, who holds 15% of the company's voting rights. However, the majority of the board is made up of non-family members: Rothschild banker Irving Bellotti – who was already a director – Legance lawyer Andrea Silvestri and Milanese notary Elena Terrenghi. KEY ROLE IN ARMANI'S FUTURE The Foundation will play a central role in shaping governance decisions and ownership changes at the fashion house, which will also require the agreement of the external advisors on the board. Under the foundation's bylaws, the five board members must unanimously approve key decisions, such as voting at extraordinary shareholders' meetings of the luxury group. Armani's will instructed the heirs to sell a 15% stake in the group, with priority given to luxury conglomerate LVMH, beauty heavyweight L'Oreal, eyewear leader EssilorLuxottica or another group of "equal standing" identified by the Foundation and with the agreement of Dell'Orco. The will directs heirs to sell the initial 15% stake within 18 months. Subsequently, they are to transfer an additional 30% to 54.9% to the same buyer within three to five years or, alternatively, pursue an initial public offering. The Foundation is also tasked with proposing the name of the fashion group's new CEO, the company's executive committee said last month. (Reporting by Elisa Anzolin, editing by Giulia Segreti and Susan Fenton)

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By Ateev Bhandari and Saeed Azhar (Reuters) -Goldman Sachs beat Wall Street expectations for third-quarter profit on Tuesday, as its investment bankers earned higher advisory fees and rallying markets boosted revenue from managing client assets. The bank's prediction for a banner year for dealmaking has materialized as corporations revive plans for mergers and listings.   Goldman's investment banking fees surged 42% to $2.66 billion in the quarter ended September 30 from a year ago. Analysts were expecting a 14.3% increase, according to the average estimate compiled by LSEG. A Goldman executive said the firm advised on $1 trillion in announced mergers and acquisitions year to date, $220 billion more than its next closest competitor. It advised Electronic Arts on its $55 billion sale to a consortium of private equity firms and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund this year, and also advised Holcim on the spinoff of its North American business Amrize, now valued at $26 billion. Goldman also advised Fifth Third Bancorp, which this month agreed to buy regional lender Comerica in a $10.9 billion deal to create the ninth-largest U.S. bank. ADVISORY FEES JUMP The growth was fueled by a 60% surge in advisory fees, while debt and equity underwriting fees also increased. Rival JPMorgan Chase also reported robust investment banking numbers. Goldman shares fell 1.8% in premarket trading after the results. The shares have surged 37% year-to-date as of Monday, reflecting the dealmaking rebound. "This quarter's results reflect the strength of our client franchise and focus on executing our strategic priorities in an improved market environment," CEO David Solomon said in a statement. "We know that conditions can change quickly and so we remain focused on strong risk management," he said, echoing cautious optimism from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.  Global M&A volumes for the first nine months of the year crossed $3.43 trillion, with nearly 48% of it in the U.S., according to data from Dealogic.  The period also saw the highest average M&A volume globally and in the U.S. since 2015, in line with Solomon's prediction at last year's Reuters NEXT conference.  Goldman was among the joint book-running managers on marquee initial public offerings in the quarter, including design software firm Figma, Swedish fintech Klarna, and space tech firm Firefly Aerospace.  Overall quarterly profit was $4.1 billion, or $12.25 per share, exceeding Wall Street expectations of $11 per share. "The capital markets machine has clearly shifted into a higher gear, with robust stock prices, a reduced regulatory burden, and the prospect of lower interest rates likely to keep the momentum going," said Stephen Biggar, a banking analyst at Argus Research. Goldman executives have been increasingly optimistic about dealmaking in recent months, with Solomon saying in September it had one of its busiest weeks for IPOs in more than four years.  ASSET AND WEALTH MANAGEMENT FOCUS Revenue from asset and wealth management rose 17% to $4.4 billion, marking the first quarterly jump this year for the segment. This reflected record-high management fees, as well as private banking and lending revenue.  The business is a key priority for Goldman as it seeks steadier revenue from fees, which offset the volatility in its advisory and trading businesses. Goldman said last month it would take a stake worth as much as $1 billion in T. Rowe Price, as part of a partnership to tap the asset manager's retirement money for alternative assets. Assets under supervision climbed to $3.45 trillion, boosting management fees by 12%. Goldman set aside $339 million as provisions for credit losses, compared with $397 million a year ago. The provisions were mainly related to its credit card portfolio. SUSTAINED TRADING RESILIENCE  Wall Street trading desks have reaped rewards from record volatility as clients rejig portfolios to keep pace with changes in President Donald Trump's trade, foreign, and fiscal policies.      The third quarter, however, remained one of Wall Street's calmest quarters in nearly six years as an interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve and robust AI investment pushed major U.S. stock indexes to record highs. Still, Goldman's equities trading revenue rose 7% to $3.74 billion, fueled by higher revenue in financing, which offset lower revenue from cash equities. Fixed income, currency and commodities hauled in $3.47 billion, 17% higher than a year ago.    (Reporting by Ateev Bhandari in Bengaluru and Saeed Azhar in New York; Editing by Lananh Nguyen, Arun Koyyur, Rod Nickel)

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By Howard Schneider PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday delivers his last scheduled remarks before the Fed's next meeting with the economy enjoying stronger-than-expected growth and a recent jump in productivity,  but still adjusting to tariff and immigration policies that economists worry could lead to both higher inflation and higher unemployment. Challenging for a central bank responsible for keeping inflation low and employment as high as possible, Powell and his colleagues are also facing a drought of official data amid a U.S. government shutdown that has delayed the September jobs report and other key statistics. An update on consumer prices is now scheduled for October 24, before the Fed's October 28-29 meeting. Investors expect the Fed to lower its benchmark interest rate by a quarter-of-a-percentage point to the 3.75%-to-4.00% range, and then lower it again in December. But the competing forces in the economy right now have become tangled, said EY-Parthenon Chief Economist Gregory Daco.  "There are conflicting forces that are affecting the US economy, in particular, with the US economy essentially being constrained by tariffs…Also by reduced immigration," Daco said at a meeting of the National Association for Business Economics conference, where Powell speaks on Tuesday. "At the same time, we're seeing a great deal of…investment on the AI front… These forces are offsetting one another, not necessarily proportionally, not necessarily at the same time, but I think it's a very interesting duel." How fast the tension resolves into a more consistent view of the economy will be crucial for coming Fed decisions. Policymakers are divided between those concerned that inflation remains above the Fed's 2% target and is expected to remain so through next year, and those who see the job market at risk of a fast slide.  "Something's got to give," Fed Governor Christopher Waller told CNBC last week. He noted the contradiction between economic growth estimates getting revised higher – nearing 4% for the third quarter, according to the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow model – and a job market that seems in the doldrums with a recent report from payroll processor ADP showing the economy lost jobs in September. "You can't have negative job growth and 4% GDP growth….Either the labor market rebounds to match the GDP growth, or GDP growth is going to pull back," said Waller, who favors further rate cuts to protect the job market, but says those should come in cautious, quarter-point moves to avoid a mistake. The Fed's quarter-point reduction in September was framed as a way to balance potential strains on the job market while still leaving rates high enough to maintain downward pressure on inflation. In the absence of the September jobs report, officials like Waller have noted that an array of private-sector indicators have pointed to weak hiring, even if none on their own is a perfect substitute for the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly surveys of businesses and households. At the same time, the last reported unemployment rate of 4.3% in August remained near what's considered full employment, and a Chicago Fed estimate of the September rate indicated it did not change much, if at all. But coming months could prove important in understanding the impact of President Donald Trump's policies, from still-evolving tariffs to immigration restrictions to tax changes. Surveys of corporate executives, company earnings reports, and other data have painted a consistent picture of an adaptation still underway. Firms may have absorbed much of the tariff impact so far by cutting costs or trimming profits, a dynamic economists said could be driving short-term productivity improvements while the longer-run payoff of AI investment is still developing, but also that price increases are in the pipeline for next year. Forecasters surveyed by NABE, for example, see inflation by the Fed's preferred measure remaining at 2.5% through next year, while analysts including Karen Dynan, a Harvard University economist and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, see it rising even higher – in her case to around 3.3% through 2026 as tariff costs are increasingly passed along to consumers. Given recent years of above target inflation, "I think there is a good chance inflation expectations become unanchored…and if that proves to be the case the Fed cuts – and I do expect several more – are going to be seen as a mistake," she said. The counterargument, of a budding productivity boom that could add to growth without rising prices, can't be discounted, Philadelphia Fed President Anna Paulson told the NABE conference. She said she is already concerned the aspects of the economy supporting growth have narrowed to a few, such as AI investment and spending among higher-income consumers. "I don't want to step on a productivity boom," said Paulson, who described the current outlook for two more quarter-point rate cuts this year as "appropriate."   Growth continues, but rests on "a relatively narrow base," she said. "Indeed, some business contacts are wondering where future demand will come from." (Reporting by Howard Schneider in Philadelphia; Editing by Dan Burns and Chizu Nomiyama )

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