Macquarie Group has weathered tough conditions to report a net profit of $361 million for the half year ended 30 September, up 18 per cent on the same period in 2011 but down 15 per cent on the half-year ended 31 March 2012.
In an announcement released on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Macquarie Group managing director Nicholas Moore acknowledged the challenging market conditions but pointed to the good performance of the annuities-style businesses.
In its detailed presentation of the half-year results, the company pointed to the challenges still confronting Macquarie Private Wealth, and the fact that retail turnover was down 28 per cent when compared to the first half.
As well, it said Australia and New Zealand private wealth and direct client numbers were down 3.6 per cent on the first half, while intermediary client numbers increased 2 per cent.
Discussing the outlook for the company, Moore said the group continued to expect an improved result for the 2013 financial year "provided market conditions for financial year 2013 are not worse than those experienced in financial year 2012".
He said the result also remained subject to a range of challenges, including the cost of the continued conservative approach to funding and capital, regulation, increased competition in some markets and the overall cost of funding.
