Macquarie Group


Macquarie Group Limited is an Australian multinational independent investment bank and financial services company. Headquartered and listed in Australia, Macquarie employs more than 14,000 staff in 25 countries, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia's top ranked mergers and acquisitions adviser, with more than A$495 billion in assets under management. The company's operating groups include Macquarie Asset Management and Macquarie Capital.
Macquarie holds a number of licences enabling it to conduct activities in the jurisdictions in which it operates and is regulated by a significant number of regulators globally. In Australia, Macquarie Bank Limited holds a banking licence and as an authorised deposit-taking institution, is supervised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. Other key Australian regulators include the Australian Securities & Investments Commission and AUSTRAC. Globally, key regulators include the UK FCA and PRA; US CFTC, FINRA, NFA, FERC, SEC and Federal Reserve Board; IIROC; MAS; Hong Kong SFC; HKMA; SEBI; Japan FSA; Korean FSS; and New Zealand FMA.
Macquarie's philanthropic arm, the Macquarie Group Foundation, has contributed more than A$330 million globally since 1985 with its community investment strategy “to support social innovation, and to strengthen the impact of non-profit organisations by funding capacity building and collaboration.”. Recipients include the Clontarf Foundation and The Centre for Social Impact.
The firm's collection of artworks, the Macquarie Group Collection, established in 1987 to support emerging artists and displayed in more than 30 Macquarie offices worldwide, is one of world's largest corporate collections of Australian art comprising more than 750 individual works.

History

1969–1979

Macquarie was founded on 10 December 1969 as Hill Samuel Australia Limited, a subsidiary of the UK's Hill Samuel & Co. Limited.
Australian businessman Stan Owens compiled a proposal for Hill Samuel & Co. to establish an Australian subsidiary. After presenting his report in London, Mr Owens was offered the role of implementing it. He became Executive Chairman of Hill Samuel Australia and founded the company from offices at Gold Fields House in Sydney's Circular Quay. The company's first three employees were Stan Owens, Blair Hesketh and Geoff Hobson. Later Chris Castleman and Bill Clarke joined. David Clarke and Mark Johnson were introduced to HSA and became joint Managing Directors in 1971. Despite being given a four-year allowance by the British parent to turn a profit, HSA was profitable by the end of its first twelve months of trading.
In 1971, HSA secured Australia's biggest mandate at the time, a US$60 million financing for corrugated iron manufacturer John Lysaght Australia. HSA expanded its presence in the Australian market, opening a Melbourne office in 1972, and a Brisbane office in 1975.
In other business initiatives during the decade, HSA helped pioneer the foreign currency hedge market in Australia, commenced gold bullion trading, extended its coverage to all listed commodities and was one of the first merchant banks to be granted floor member status at the Sydney Futures Exchange.

1980–1989

The 1980s were marked by significant financial market deregulation in Australia, including the floating of the Australian dollar and the removal of restrictions on foreign banks. To take advantage of the opportunities offered by deregulation, HSA submitted a proposal for the formation of a new substantially Australian owned and controlled bank to be called Macquarie Bank Limited. Authority for HSA to become Macquarie Bank Limited was received from the Federal Treasurer Paul Keating on 28 February 1985, making it only the second private trading bank to be established in Australia in modern times.
The bank continued to grow its activities in the 1980s. It became Australia's leading bullion trader, initiated 24-hour foreign exchange trading, commenced stockbroking and corporate leasing activities, opened offices in London and Munich, expanded into funds management by establishing Australia's first cash management account and formed a new structured finance business which would grow to become one of the largest in the world. It also implemented the risk management framework which is credited for the organisation's long history of unbroken profitability. The framework ensured Macquarie was not materially exposed to the October 1987 global share market crash.
In other initiatives, Macquarie established its philanthropic arm, the Macquarie Group Foundation, which has since contributed more than $A330 million to community organisations around the world, and established what has become one of Australia's largest corporate art collections, the Macquarie Group Collection.

1990–1999

On 29 July 1996, Macquarie Bank Limited listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. By 30 October 1996 Macquarie had entered the ASX All Ordinaries Index, with a market capitalisation of approximately A$1.3 billion and would grow to more than A$35 billion in 2018 to become one of Australia's largest listed companies.
Macquarie continued its overseas expansion during the early 1990s, opening offices in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and Beijing, while extending its Australian operations to Perth and the Gold Coast. Acquisitions during the decade included Boston Australia Limited, Security Pacific Australia and the investment banking arm of Bankers Trust Australia.
In 1994, Macquarie began its infrastructure investment business with the underwriting and placement of publicly listed equity for the Hills Motorway in Sydney. It has continued to grow these activities to become the world's leading infrastructure manager. During the decade, Macquarie also launched its private banking and residential mortgages businesses and established a number of real estate and investment trusts.

2000–2009

Macquarie continued to expand its Asia operations in the early 2000s with the opening of offices in Seoul and Tokyo in 2000, and through the acquisition of ING Group's Asian cash equities business in March 2004.
The decade was also marked by the global expansion of Macquarie's infrastructure business, with infrastructure investment funds established in Korea, China, Europe, Russia, India and the Middle East. On 16 December 2004, Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation began trading as Macquarie Infrastructure Company Trust on the New York Stock Exchange.
Macquarie made a number of significant acquisitions, particularly in the US, in the later part of the 2000s. These included US energy marketing and trading company Cook Inlet Energy Supply, establishing Macquarie's physical natural gas trading business in the US, and Constellation Energy's Houston-based downstream natural gas trading operations. As at 2018 Macquarie Group is the second largest physical gas trader in North America.
Other acquisitions included UK gas supply company Corona Energy in August 2006 and, in 2009, independent energy advisory firm Tristone Global Capital Inc; specialist investment bank Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Walker; Canadian wealth management business Blackmont Capital Inc; the wholesale electricity trading business of US firm Integrys Energy; US-based fixed income fund manager Allegiance Investment Management; the equity derivatives and structured products business of German private bank Sal. Oppenheim; and Condor Ferries service between the UK, Channel Islands and France.
In 2005, Macquarie announced an unsolicited takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange valuing the company at £1.5 billion, a bid rejected by LSE management.
In 2007, MBL securityholders and the Federal Court approved the restructure of the Macquarie Group into a non-operating holding company structure.

2010–present

In 2010, Macquarie Group completed its then largest acquisition with the purchase of Delaware Investments, a leading US-based diversified asset management firm, from Lincoln Financial Group. As a result of the acquisition, Macquarie became one of the world's top 50 asset managers. Delaware Investments was re-branded as Macquarie Investment Management in 2017.
Macquarie has significantly grown its renewable energy activities this decade. In January 2015, Macquarie Group acquired a stake in Baltic 2 offshore wind park from EnBW for a fee totaling €720 million. Macquarie Group led a consortium of bidders to successfully acquire the British Green Investment Bank for £2.3 billion. The takeover means the group will manage or supervise around £4 billion of green infrastructure assets and projects, with a further £3 billion of investment targeted. The accompanying announcement stated that it will still pursue its main purpose of attracting private funds to invest in renewable energy generation assets.
Macquarie's Corporate and Asset Finance business made a number of significant acquisitions. In March 2015, Macquarie announced the acquisition of a $US4 billion aircraft operating lease portfolio from AWAS Aviation Capital Limited. In October Macquarie entered into an agreement to acquire the A$8.2 billion Esanda dealer finance portfolio from ANZ Banking Group.
In June 2017, Macquarie's Commodities and Global Markets business completed its acquisition of Cargill Inc's petroleum business as well as its North America power and gas business. The transaction expanded Macquarie's global financial and physical oil business footprint to include Geneva and Minneapolis.
In March 2020, Cincinnati Bell, which also owns Hawaiian Tel since their July 2018 merger, merged with Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets.
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Macquarie Wealth Management issued a note to investors, warning that “conventional capitalism is dying” and the world is headed for “something that will be closer to a version of communism’. It forecast “effective nationalisation of capital, universal income guarantees and deep changes in work practice.”

Current operations

Macquarie employs more than 14,000 staff in 25 countries. Macquarie's business activities are organised into five principal operating groups.
There are three annuity-style businesses:
; Macquarie Group's Melbourne office.There are two capital markets facing businesses:
In addition to the principal operating groups, Macquarie has a network of support groups including: Corporate Operations Group, Financial Management Group, Legal and Governance Group and Risk Management Group.
Macquarie's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer is Shemara Wikramanayake, who replaced Nicholas Moore in December 2018.
In the financial year ending 31 March 2018, Macquarie reported a record net profit A$2.6 billion and a record final dividend per ordinary share of A$5.25 per share.

Board of directors

Macquarie Group's current Board of Directors includes:
Macquarie Group takes its name from Major General Lachlan Macquarie, one of Australia's early leaders who established the nation's first bank, introduced its first currency and initiated many significant economic and social reforms.
Macquarie Group's logo is a stylised representation of the Holey Dollar, Australia's first official currency.
In 1813, Governor Lachlan Macquarie overcame an acute currency shortage in the colony of New South Wales by importing 40,000 Spanish silver dollars and punching a hole through the centre of them to create two unique coins, the Holey Dollar and the Dump. The new currency stimulated the economy while retaining its intrinsic value, with the two new coins worth 25 per cent more than the original.
According to Macquarie Group, the Holey Dollar was Australia's earliest example of financial innovation and embodies its pursuit of practical approaches with profitable outcomes.
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Notable former employees

Business

Macquarie Bank maintains political connections through the appointment of former politicians and senior political staffers to senior positions.
In 2018, the Macquarie group was being investigated for massive tax fraud in several European countries over long periods. Macquarie's internal documents, reviewed by a collaboration between 17 European media, showed that Macquarie continued to make money available for speculation and fraud with dividend tax after their legal advisers expressed concern.
Macquarie Group, through its subsidiary Macquarie Equipment Rentals, was criticised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for suing 300 small businesses caught up in misleading telephony bundling deals.
In 2017, Macquarie, via a deal in which it acquired Thames Water, a private utility company responsible for public water supply and waste water treatment in the London region of the UK, was found to have transferred to Thames Water £2bn of debt before selling its stake in the company. These disclosures followed scrutiny of the possible financial causes of Thames Water's extensive pollution of the Thames, and other rivers, with untreated sewage between 2012 and 2014, for which Thames Water was fined a record £20m. In response to criticism, Macquarie noted that during its tenure Thames Water invested more than £11 billion, or around £1 billion per year, more than twice that invested during the five-year period before privatisation in 1989. The Lee Tunnel was commissioned in January 2010 and opened by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, in January 2016. The capital investment undertaken to London's water supply was the first major investment since the Victorian era.