Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) has indicated its desire to commit to the fast-growing wealth business in Australia by divesting its North American and European public investment business.
The firm announced it would sell those two businesses, which contain equities, fixed income and multi-asset solutions, to Japanese investment bank Nomura for $2.8 billion.
MAM will retain its public investment business in Australia where it will continue to operate an asset management business across public and private markets.
“As a result of the transaction, MAM will be a more focused, leading, global private markets alternatives business serving the fast-growing institutional, insurance and wealth markets, with a scaled full-service asset manager in Australia.”
As part of the transaction, MAM and Nomura, which has US$58.4 billion in assets under management, will collaborate on product and distribution opportunities, and Nomura will provide seed capital for a range of MAM Alternative funds tailored for US wealth clients. Nomura will also be MAM’s wealth distribution partner in the US.
Commenting on the deal, MAM head Ben Way said: “We are proud of the public investments business we have built and grown over many decades. We are pleased that Nomura will carry it forward into a new phase of growth in North America and Europe. We are also excited to further strengthen our collaboration with Nomura, creating benefits for our respective clients.
“This transaction will allow MAM to build on our leading global position in private markets, and our leading position in Australian public markets, as we focus on providing solutions for our institutional, insurance and wealth clients.”
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close by the end of 2025.
In 2023, Macquarie was the only Australian investment manager to rank in top 50 investment managers, according to the Thinking Ahead Institute, with assets under management of around $916 billion globally.
In the past year, it had been active in the ETF space with two systematic active ETFs in May 2024 and two fixed income ETFs in February 2025. Its active ETF platform now has four fixed income and three equity ETFs, having been launched in 2023.
In 2016, Nomura acquired a 41 per cent stake in American Century Investments for over $1 billion, which now has US$262 billion in assets under management.
