Australia's Macquarie Group raises FY profit forecast

[BENGALURU] Australia's largest investment bank Macquarie Group on Tuesday said it expects a 15 per cent rise in profit for the full year ended March, fuelled by higher revenue from its market facing businesses.

Expectations were heightened back in November when the company raised its profit guidance from zero to 10 per cent growth in the year to March 2019, setting the stage for new chief executive officer Shemara Wikramanayake, who took the reins in December from Nicholas Moore.

The Sydney-based company said a jump in value of advisory activities by its unit Macquarie Capital and strong performance by its commodities platform will contribute to its full year net profit.

"Macquarie remains well positioned to deliver superior performance in the medium term," said Ms Wikramanayake, in her first results announcement as chief executive officer.

The company also said profit contribution of its core "annuity-style businesses" in the third quarter was slightly higher than a year ago, but was down for the nine months to December because of lower performance fees in its asset management business.

The bank's asset management business, its biggest-earning unit, saw its assets under management fall 2 per cent to A$551 billion (S$529.4 billion) as at Dec 31, compared to three months earlier.

Macquarie's common equity tier 1 capital ratio as at Dec 31 was 10.8 per cent, up from 10.4 per cent at Sept 30.

REUTERS