The offering, which was put on hold last year after Goldman's profits were bloodied by trading losses and market turmoil, comes alongside a 16 per cent increase in the firm's pre-tax profits in the first quarter to $1.19 billion.

The securities firm, in a filing with government regulators, said it would sell up to 60 million shares and estimated the initial stock price would be between $40 and $50. The offer would represent about 11 percent of the company.

This would value Goldman between $21 billion and $23 billion, based on the firm's regulatory filing. That still would lag the market capitalizations of financial service industry leaders Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.

"This change will allow us to secure permanent capital to grow; to share ownershipbroadly among our employees now and through future compensation; and to permit us to use publicly traded securities to finance strategic acquisitions that we may elect to make in the future," Jon Corzine and Henry Paulson Jr., the firm's co-chairman, said in a statement

Corzine, 51, the IPO's primary engineer, will quit Goldman after the stock offering, leaving Paulson in charge.

Goldman axed its plans to go public late last year amid sharp bond trading losses and turbulent market conditions. The firm's profits tumbled 81 percent in its prior fourth quarter ended November 27.

But it restarted the IPO process as its fortunes picked up in December with a recovery in stock and corporate debt markets. The firm said on Tuesday profits before partners' pay and taxes rose 16 per cent to $1.19 billion, while revenues rose 21 per cent to $2.995 billion in the quarter ended February 26.

A rebound in trading and investment banking boosted first-quarter results, Goldman said. "Goldman has said many times theyplanned to retest the waters when things got better," Randall Roth, an analyst at research and investment firm Renaissance Capital, that monitors IPOs. "Trading operations are doing a lot better and things are picking up...There is a certain cachet to owning shares of Goldman Sachs, which had been previously limited to partners. I think there will be strong institutional and aftermarket support for this deal."

Goldman's first-quarter results and initial public offering filing also coincided with a surge in the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average across the 10,000 milestone for the first time ever, marking a record rise in US stock prices.

"The firm's investment banking business performed well during the quarter, particularly in financial advisory and debt underwriting, and assets under management continued to increase," David Viniar, Goldman Sach's chief financial officer, said of the first quarter.

Trading profits recovered "significantly" from the tough conditions experienced in the second halfof 1998, while the firm's capital increased to about $6.6 billion from $6.3 billion at the end of November.

Goldman's operating expenses also rose to $1.807 billion from $1.450 billion. Goldman will underwrite its own offering so has the option to buy a 9million-share allotment. It has applied to the New York Stock Exchange to trade under the symbol "GS".

Of the 60 million shares offered to the public, Goldman will sell 42 million common shares and existing shareholders Sumitomo Bank Capital Markets Inc and Kamehameha Activities Association will offer 18 million shares, the filing showed.

At the time that Goldman restarted its IPO process, the offering had been expected to produce fewer profits for Goldman's partners than it would have last summer when US financial services and bank stocks surged.