Macquarie Group Announces Solid Start for Current Fiscal

Macquarie Group (MQG) announced a solid start for the current fiscal year; however, it cautioned that it would be difficult to repeat last year's performance owing to the ongoing credit crisis round the globe. The market gave a sigh of relief on firm's sound footings and the same reflected in its share prices as well.

The share prices for the group witnessed a sharp spike in response to its annual general meeting which produced no unpleasant surprises. The new Chief Executive, Nicholas Moore, reiterated that it would be difficult to repeat last year's $1.8 billion profit, but did not rule out the possibility of the same. However, he asserted a "solid" start for the current fiscal year. Some of the shareholders were skeptical about Group's "Macquarie Model" which was well defended by Moore and his Chairman David Clarke.

Macquarie Group currently manages about $232 billion infrastructure and real estate assets around the world. The global investment Group has suffered a setback in its inflows due to global credit crisis which has made several corporate to shelve their capital raising plans. This dented Macquarie's revenue growth and restricted its revenue generation.

Group's held its annual general meeting on Wednesday and reported a drop in its profits for the last quarter April to June 2008 as compared to last quarter in previous fiscal year. However, the overall picture for Macquarie was quite promising and shareholders were relieved to see the form footings of the group.

At the end of June, the Group reported liquid assets worth $230 billion which were three times as compared to liquid assets in March. It also had excess capital of $3.6 million which was well above the regulatory requirements in the country. According to the analysts, the net profit for the group shall fall nearly 6 percent to $1.6 billion in the year to March 2009.

After the announcement of Company results at its annual general meeting, market welcomed the annual report and the share prices hiked nearly 11.62 percent or $5.41 to close at $52.00. However, the share prices were still well below the Company's all time high price of $98.64 in May 2007.