Macquarie keen to grow Irish business amid bumper results

Global financial services company Macquarie Group is understood to be eyeing more Irish projects after closing a €250 million public-private deal in recent weeks to deliver new buildings for third-level colleges around the Republic.

Profits at the Australian lender, a multifaceted international bank and asset manager, rose to 5.18 billion Australian dollars (€3.1 billion) in the year to March 31st, according to the bank’s annual report, a record for the group that also topped analyst estimates.

Macquarie’s Europe, Middle East and Africa regional unit – headed by Irish man Paul Plewman – was its third-largest income centre last year behind the US and Australia, contributing almost €2.9 billion in net income.

The report notes that in Ireland, where Macquarie has had a presence since 2003, the group is acting as “100 per cent equity sponsor and financial adviser to the Enbarr Partnership to construct six higher education buildings” in the Republic. The partnership comprises Macquarie, contractor JJ Rhatigan and facilities manager Sodexo with AIB, Bank of Ireland, Nord/LB, Korea Development Bank and Norinchukin Bank providing finance after winning the contract from the Department of Further and Higher Education.

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The €250 million deal will provide a total 5,000 extra student places across four colleges: Technological University Dublin; Munster Technological University in Cork and Tralee; Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire; and Technological University of the Shannon in Athlone, Co Westmeath.

[ Macquarie in €250m universities deal ]

Macquarie is also understood to be interested in other public-private partnership projects across a range of sectors.

A Macquarie spokesman said: “The higher education PPP contract was one of Macquarie’s larger projects in Ireland and we’re delighted to support the Irish State to provide high-quality educational buildings across four third-level colleges. Our Irish business has been expanding in recent years, and we are keen to further grow our activities and support the Irish economy.”

Apart from the universities project, the group is also developing 400 megawatts of offshore electricity generation at the Sceirde Rocks wind farm off the Connemara coast and, in 2021, reached a deal to acquire Panda Power owner Beauparc worth an estimated €1 billion. A Macquarie-led group also built the east and central quad buildings that form the core of Technological University Dublin’s (TUD) Grangegorman campus.

The company’s results were underpinned by a 54 per cent surge in profits from its commodity trading business, which accounted for more than half of the group’s net profits last year. Off the back of the price volatility seen in global markets last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an increase in hedging and trading activity saw profits at Macquarie’s commodities division soar to the equivalent of €3.6 billion before tax and other deductions.

As a consequence, Nick O’Kane, the group’s global head of commodities and markets, saw his total pay packet balloon by 59 per cent boost to A$57.6 million (€34.7 million), ahead of some of the top US bankers, including JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon.