Macquarie Group (MQG) fell by more than 9% today after the investment bank announced the retirement of its managing director and chief executive, Allan Moss.
Mr Moss is retiring in May and will be replaced by the head of Macquarie Capital, Nicholas Moore.
The change was announced to the market this morning and not received favourably by investors with the stock sold off in droves, despite Macquarie Group also forecasting yet another record profit of $1.8 billion.
The departure of Macquarie's star CEO came as a surprise for the market, as Mr Moss has led Macquarie Group for 15 years, bringing the company to new levels of success.
He is Australia's highest paid executive and has taken home close to $80 million over the last three years, and $33.5 million last year alone.
Mr Moss' retirement will be effective from May 24, which is shortly after he delivers the Macquarie Group's annual result for the year ending March 2008.
Commenting on his decision to retire Mr Moss said: "This has been a very difficult decision but we have an ideal successor in Nicholas and I feel that this is the right time for me to hand over."
"I have been with Macquarie and its predecessors for more than 30 years, I have been chief executive for almost 15 years. Macquarie is in great shape."
"We expect to again achieve record profits in our current financial year and there is an excellent successor in place."
That excellence may need to be proven if the market is to trust the bank's new CEO as Mr Moore's performance will be a very tough act to follow.
Macquarie Group chairman David Clarke said Mr Moore was an obvious choice to succeed Allan Moss.
"Nicholas has led the development of our Macquarie Capital business which provides more than 50% of the Group's profits," Mr Clarke said.
"He is globally recognised as a leading financial services leader and is ideally qualified to take Macquarie's global businesses to the next stage of their development."
The bank also reiterated its forecast for record profits in 2008, with the bank expecting a 23% increase from last year to achieve a profit of at least $1.8 billion for the year ending March 2008.
Macquarie Group also predicted earnings in the second half of the financial to be at least in line with the $733 million reported in the same period in fiscal 2007.
Shares in Macquarie Group continued to slide over the course of the day to close down by $6.06 or 9.02% at $61.10.
