Macquarie Group evades first strike on remuneration

Macquarie Group was hit with a sizeable 15 per cent vote against its multi-million-dollar executive paycheques.

Macquarie reaffirmed guidance given in May

Macquarie Group was hit with a sizeable 15 per cent vote against its multi-million-dollar executive paycheques at yesterday’s annual meeting, but well below the 25 per cent level required to register a ‘‘first strike’’.

Macquarie chief executive Nicholas Moore this year retained his spot as the best-paid boss in Australia, earning $18.71 million in the past year.

The investment bank’s annual report published today shows the long-serving Mr Moore’s pay packet rose by nearly $700,000 last year, while most of his top executives also earned handsome rises.

The woman tipped to eventually run Macquarie Group, asset management boss Shemara Wikramanayake, netted $17.3m for the year, down slightly on 2016.

Mr Moore has been managing director and chief executive since May 2008.

He yesterday told shareholders Macquarie’s operations had been performing in line with expectations and it continued to expect a steady profit this financial year.

Contributions from Macquarie’s various businesses increased in the first quarter of fiscal 2018 over a year ago, but were down on a strong previous quarter, it said in a statement ahead of its annual shareholders meeting.

Mr Moore said Macquarie’s annuity-style businesses continued to perform well, while trading conditions improved across most markets on the bank’s capital-markets-facing operations.

Macquarie reaffirmed guidance given in May, forecasting its net profit in the year through June would be broadly in line with the previous year, when profit climbed 7.5 per cent to a better-than-expected $2.22 billion.

Base fees at the Macquarie Asset Management unit were broadly steady, but performance fees were down year over year, while corporate and asset-finance lending was up, year on year. Growth continued in the banking and financial services operations, particularly in mortgages, business banking and deposit books, Mr Moore said.

Macquarie, which began as a subsidiary of London merchant bank Hill Samuel & Co and opened its first office in Sydney in 1970, has in recent years shifted towards more reliable asset management, financing and commercial banking operations to cushion volatility in investment banking and trading. These annuity-style operations now contribute the bulk of the bank’s earnings.

In May, a consortium of investors led by Macquarie landed a $7.62bn deal to secure a long-term lease of one of the largest electricity distribution networks in NSW.

In June, it agreed to buy Cargill’s North American power and gas business for an undisclosed price, months after it signed a deal to buy the agriculture company’s global petroleum-trading operations.

andrew white

additional reporting: agencies