New York - The largest US investment bank Goldman Sachs on Tuesday announced a third-quarter profit loss of 845 million dollars, but stressed the company was doing better than its competitors.

The loss compares to a 2.9 billion dollar profit for the same quarter in 2007, the bank said in a statement from in New York.

Despite the loss, Goldman Sachs could boast that it was still a going concern unlike competitors Lehman Brothers (which filed for bankruptcy Monday) and Merrill Lynch
(which was sold to the Bank of America).

The loss for Goldman drove the company's overall profit down from 6.13 dollars per share to 1.81.

Analysts had expected the company to post a small profit. (dpa)