Ex-Macquarie star Nicholas O’Kane in talks with trading house Mercuria

Nicholas O’Kane, the $1m a week star executive who recently resigned from Macquarie, is in talks to join Swiss commodities trading firm Mercuria.

Former Macquarie banker Nicholas O’Kane.

Nicholas O’Kane, the star executive who recently resigned from Macquarie, after earning over $1m each week last year – making him the highest paid banker in the country – is in talks to join Swiss commodities trading firm Mercuria, according to media reports.

Macquarie, dubbed the “millionaires’ factory” for the high pay cheques of its executives, last week surprised the market by announcing Mr O’Kane had resigned after earning over $171m in the past six years in top roles at the firm’s commodities trading unit, its most profitable.

The Sydney-based banking conglomerate said Mr O’Kane, whose pay last year grabbed headlines for topping those of JPMorgan’s chief executive Jamie Dimon and Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, was leaving to pursue opportunities outside Macquarie and “for a range of personal reasons”.

On Friday, the Financial Times reported Mr O’Kane had held “initial talks” about joining Mercuria, citing an anonymous source it said was familiar with the matter.

A few hours later, Reuters reported four anonymous sources had confirmed this. The report said “a deal was close”, but that it was unclear what Mr O’Kane’s potential role would be or how advanced the talks were.

Mr O’Kane did not return messages seeking comment and Macquarie declined to comment.

Mr O’Kane’s nose for finding lucrative strategic opportunities and aligning the firm to capitalise on them is widely seen as a key driver of the success of Macquarie’s commodities and global markets (CGM) unit.

The unit rose from humble beginnings in the early 2000s, when Macquarie was only lending to energy and commodities businesses. Mr O’Kane came across a small commodities house called Cook Inlet in the US and led Macquarie’s acquisition of the business in the US.

Less than two decades later, CGM is now the second-largest physical trader of natural gas in North America, and the unit’s profit contributions to the group topped $16.6bn in the six years since Mr O’Kane joined Macquarie’s executive committee in 2017.

Founded in 2004 by former Goldman Sachs traders Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi, Mercuria has quietly moved to strengthen its presence in Australia. In 2023, it poached EnergyAustralia’s trading team, a blow to the company that was navigating a volatile market.

Mercuria did not respond to an email seeking comment.

It is not known what Mercuria plans to do in Australia or what its payment structure looks like. It has interests in Australia and lists 530 Collins St, Melbourne as its local office.

In 2021, it partnered with CWP – recently acquired by Andrew Forrest’s privately owned Squadron Energy for $4bn – to build 2GW of large-scale wind, solar, and battery storage projects across Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and Ukraine.

Under the terms of the deal, Mercuria was to provide expertise in energy markets and financial support.

O’Kane started his career as a currencies trader for National Australia Bank in Melbourne, before relocating to Sydney with Macquarie in 1995.