Nov 6 (Reuters) - Macquarie Group reported its highest-ever first-half profit on Friday, driven by a surge in income from its commodities and trading division, marking a blockbuster swansong for CEO Shemara Wikramanayake after eight years at the helm.
Macquarie reported a six-month net profit attributable of A$2.48 billion ($1.72 billion), beating the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$2.32 billion and blazing past last year's A$1.66 billion.
It is Macquarie's best first-half result since the investment
bank went public almost two decades ago, according to Reuters calculations.
Wikramanayake, an industry veteran and one of Australia's most high-profile female chief executives, said, "It has been a privilege to work with so many talented Macquarie teams over the last 39 years, including for the last eight years as CEO."
She will retire on Friday, and be replaced by Macquarie veteran Greg Ward.
The investment bank's commodities and global markets (CGM) division, its top income-generating business, reported an 83% surge in its six-month net profit contribution to A$2.03 billion, as it capitalised on volatile energy prices stemming from the Middle East conflict.
Profit contribution from its asset management division also jumped 28%, while that from the banking and financial services segment rose 6% on growth in its loan portfolio and deposits.
It declared an interim dividend of A$3.25 per share, higher than the A$2.80 declared last year.
Separately, the country's prudential regulator, in a recent capital review, identified that Macquarie in 2019 had miscalculated the amount of capital required to support risks within its non-banking businesses.
That prompted an A$100 million governance overlay, an extra capital buffer, on top of an existing A$500 million capital overlay the regulator had applied to Macquarie Bank in 2021.
"The overall financial stability of the group, including the bank, was not undermined at any point," the regulator said.
Shares of the investment bank were trading 2.9% lower at A$251.00 in early trading, compared with a 1.1% decline in the broader ASX200 benchmark index.
($1 = 1.4382 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar and Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)
