After Macquarie disappoints, CBA prepares to face judgement
ANZ and Macquarie provided little new on bank earnings but all eyes will be on Commonwealth Bank for any slips in its high-wire act.
ANZ kicked off the bank reporting season yesterday with a pretty benign trading update, while Macquarie Group this morning delivered a third-quarter set of numbers full of disappointing red numbers, continuing the down trend of the half-year result.
Neither spooked the horses — and Macquarie’s numbers are compared with exceptional results a year earlier — but both confirmed investors have probably had a rush of blood with the recent run up of bank share prices.
Moreover, Macquarie is different to the rest of the sector. Its mix of investment banking, funds management, and commodities and capital markets trading exposes it to more global and diverse economies and markets, notably on the 'green front'. That’s where the damage was in this result, but it’s also where CEO Shemara Wikramanayake sees great opportunity.
The challenge for Macquarie is the rise in interest rates, geopolitical tensions, elements of 'woke backlash' and more mundane market factors have disrupted its lucrative green business strategy, which involves raising funds from investors, buying assets and building them up and then onselling those assets — either to one of its own funds or others.
