Australia’s Macquarie has record year but profit warning triggers share slide
By Byron Kaye and Savyata Mishra
(Reuters) -Australia’s Macquarie Group Ltd posted forecast-beating document annual revenue powered by a surge in commodities buying and selling and frenzied M&A exercise, but it surely additionally warned earnings would decline, sending its shares tumbling.
Shares within the monetary large slid 8% by midsession on Friday, their largest fall in two years, serving to drag the broader Australian market 2.5% decrease.
Internet revenue leapt 56% to A$4.71 billion ($3.4 billion) for the 12 months that resulted in March, blitzing a Seen Alpha consensus of A$4.45 billion, as its commodities buying and selling unit noticed working revenue develop 50% resulting from excessive ranges of buying and selling and hedging.
“We had the restoration out of COVID the place demand for items surged and we had some challenges on the provision aspect, we then had the Russia-Ukraine subject,” CEO Shemara Wikramanayake stated of commodities buying and selling circumstances on an analyst name.
The worth of oil has swung wildly because the begin of the COVID-19 pandemic, first plunging on tumbling demand then climbing once more as economies reopened and provide chain blockages choked provide. The warfare in Ukraine then despatched oil costs rocketing greater as Western nations look to cease shopping for from Russia, a significant producer.
Macquarie’s funding banking unit, the highest adviser for M&A offers in Australia, almost quadrupled working revenue after a blockbuster 12 months that included advising on a $17 billion buyout of Sydney Airport and oil producer Santos’ $6 billion buy of rival Oil Search.
Macquarie warned, nevertheless, that revenue from its commodities unit, which now generates greater than a 3rd of its revenue, could be “considerably down”, whereas M&A transactions would additionally drop within the present 12 months.
“Now we have a really unsure 12 months forward of us,” Wikramanayake stated with out giving particular monetary steering.
Ord Minett analysts stated they now anticipate Macquarie’s 2023 annual revenue to be “in-line to barely forward of” present forecasts of about A$4.2 billion “with potential for upgrades because the 12 months progresses”.
Macquarie declared a closing dividend of A$3.50 per share, up from A$3.35 per share a 12 months earlier.
($1 = 1.4047 Australian {dollars})
(Reporting by Byron Kaye in Sydney and Savyata Mishra, Extra reporting by Riya Sharma in Bengaluru; Modifying by Edwina Gibbs)
