SYDNEY, May 9 (Reuters) – Top Australian investment bank Macquarie reported a rise in annual profit due to a well-timed asset sale, pushing its shares higher, and flagged a renewed focus on its home market as the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump upend the world order.
Macquarie, which makes two-thirds of its profit abroad from businesses ranging from owning infrastructure to trading oil and gas, cast its Australian retail banking business as a safe harbour as Trump’s tariffs fuel inflation and roil exchange rates globally.
“Australia is going to be one of the more resilient economies,” Macquarie CEO Shemara Wikramanayake said in an interview.
“We have negligible trade with the U.S. We’re quite exposed to China, but they can stimulate. So, it’ll probably come through this quite resiliently,” she told Reuters, referring to the company’s Banking and Financial Services (BFS) unit, which runs Australia’s online-only No. 5 mortgage business.
Annual profit for the Sydney-headquartered company rose 5.5% in the year to end-March to A$3.72 billion ($2.38 billion), just pipping the Visible Alpha consensus of A$3.70 billion, after it sold a helicopter leasing business just before the end of its financial year.
Profit from its BFS unit, which has been rapidly growing its share of Australia’s A$2 trillion-plus mortgage market, leapt 11%.
Shares of Macquarie were up 4.3% near the close of trading, helping push the broader index up 0.6%, as analysts cheered a robust result from one of Australia’s most-exposed companies to the global economy.
Citi analysts called the profit “an in-line result”.
Wikramanayake, in the interview, said Macquarie’s investment banking division may experience a slowdown in mergers since “people will be cautious” and the company may need to hold equity positions longer than expected.
The bank may, however, benefit from a return to volatility in energy commodities trading since “people will need us more to provide a service”, she said.
Macquarie has been strategically realigning its North American operations, having sold its U.S. and European public asset units to Nomura in April.
Higher net interest income from growth in average loan and deposit portfolios was partly offset by margin pressure amid stiff lending competition and an ongoing shift in portfolio mix, Macquarie said.
The company reported A$941 billion in assets under management at year-end, slightly up from A$938.3 billion a year earlier.
It declared a final dividend of A$3.90 per share, slightly higher than A$3.85 per share last year.
