Macquarie Group has confirmed it expects its 2018-19 to be broadly in line with the previous year’s record $2.56 billion profit.
In other words, the early indication with three weeks left in the bank’s first half is no real gains are expected in either the September 30 interim or the March 31 full year result.
The update saw Macquarie shares rise 1.8% to $124.87.
The bank said its first half was also expected to roughly in line with the first half of fiscal 2018 when it delivered a $1.25 billion profit, underpinned by a surge in its asset management arm.
While the big four are facing softer revenue from the slowing mortgage market, Macquarie’s different business mix and its skew towards overseas are delivering much stronger growth for the financial group.
“Over the medium-term, Macquarie remains well positioned to deliver superior performance,” it said in a statement.
“The group has deep expertise in major markets and we continue to build on our strength in diversity and adapt our portfolio mix to changing market conditions. We are seeing the ongoing benefits of continued cost initiatives, our balance sheet is strong and conservative, and we have a proven risk management framework and culture.”
But analysts with memory point out that the phrase “broadly in line’ has a lot of flexibility at Macquarie.
For example a year ago yesterday it updated the market and used the same phrase saying it expected a first-half profit ‘broadly in line’ with the $1,167 million achieved in the second half of 2017, but when the interim result was released in early November, that had become a 7% gain, with a profit of $1.248 billion, while the full year result was up 15%!
