Australia's Macquarie Group forecasts FY09 profit to fall to $900 million

05 February 2009

Australia's Macquarie Group Ltd., a global provider of diversified range of services -banking, investment and funds management announced that it anticipate a net profit for FY09 to fall to $900 million after incorporating additional write downs and impairment charges from the previous year's 23 per cent rise in profit of A$1.8 billion, as global markets are in recession.

Macquarie has made an allowance of an additional $900 million in writedowns and impairment charges in the second half after $1.1 billion booked in the first half.

Macquarie forecast a fall in the operating income by 15 per cent before impairments compared to an increased 15 per cent to $8.2 billion in FY08.

The balance sheet funding and liquidity had strengthened since 30 September 2008, completing $21 billion (gross) of new funding initiatives as per the statement.

These include:
$9.1 billion of planned reductions in low-yielding funded assets achieved since 30 September 2008 to date, bringing the total to $13 billion;

Total deposits increased by $1.4 billion to $18.1 billion with retail deposit growth being particularly strong; and  Term funding of $10.9 billion issued to date since introduction of the government guarantee scheme.