(27 July 2015 – Australia) Macquarie Group is expecting its full year 2015/16 profit to be above the A$1.6 billion result posted for the year to March.
Now Macquarie is expected to make around A$1.8 billion profit for 2015/16, equalling its result in 2008.
Previously Macquarie indicated it would make only slightly higher profits, with a lower tax rate offsetting a mainly flat performance across its divisions.
The latest prediction is based on a stronger outlook for the company, particularly its asset management business, which benefited from an increase in performance fees during the first quarter, as well as a lower Australian dollar.
“As a result, we expect the group result to be up on where we were last year,” chief executive Nicholas Moore told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on 23 July.
Its other divisions are still expected to produce a flat or stronger result for the year.
Macquarie has developed a reputation for under-promising and over-delivering under Moore: it flagged a flat result at the beginning of last year but ended up lifting its profit 27 percent.
At the meeting, the company said it had paid out A$11 million in compensation to clients affected by a scandal in its wealth management division.
Macquarie entered into an enforceable undertaking with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to improve processes and training in the division.
“We are satisfied that the Macquarie Private Wealth business has been transformed in terms of its compliance practices and processes,” chairman Kevin McCann told shareholders the meeting in Sydney.