ADVERTISEMENT

Business

Macquarie Dips After Profit Misses Estimates on Weak Markets

Signage for Macquarie Group Ltd. outside the company's headquarters in Sydney, Australia, on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Macquarie Group is scheduled to report its half-year earnings results on May 3. (Brent Lewin/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Macquarie Group Ltd.’s profit fell short of analyst estimates as subdued volatility weighed on its key commodities and global markets business. The stock opened 4.3% lower.  

Net income for the six months to Sept. 30 rose to A$1.61 billion ($1.06 billion), from A$1.42 billion a year earlier, according to a statement Friday. That missed the A$1.74 billion average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

The results were in part buoyed by green-energy investment sales at its asset management unit, though not enough to offset slowing advisory work at its investment-banking arm, Macquarie Capital.

“The weaker-than-expected result is coming from softer CGM revenues/profits, mostly commodity risk management related,” UBS analysts led by John Storey wrote in a report. The outlook “reads cautiously.”

Shares in the Sydney-based firm are retreating from the all-time high reached last week. Investors have tempered profit expectations from the bank over the last year and Chief Executive Officer Shemara Wikramanayake has maintained that business would tick back up over time as energy trading grows and dealmaking recovers in line with US banks.

The major Wall Street banks posted strong earnings for the quarter ending in September, mostly on account of a rise in markets business activity and higher investment-banking fees.

Macquarie, meanwhile, has been losing the tailwinds that helped it reap record profit across a number of its flagship units. In recent years, it benefited from a unique combination of energy shocks that buoyed its commodities trading business and a spree of dealmaking that fed its investment-banking arm.

Subscribe to The Bloomberg Australia Podcast on Apple, Spotify, on YouTube, or wherever you listen.

The firm’s recent windfalls in its commodities trading arm continued to slow as clients relied on the bank less for hedging in the absence of volatility in energy markets globally. However, the firm’s energy trading for its own book in the US performed well.

Macquarie’s board approved an extension of the up to A$2 billion buyback announced last year by a further 12 months.

The shares lost 4.3% as of 10:08 a.m. in Sydney, paring this year’s advance to 21%.  

--With assistance from Georgina McKay.

(Add’s Friday share price in first and tenth paragraph)

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.