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Macquarie Expected To Issue Downbeat Forecast

July 27th, 2009

Australian investment banking major Macquarie Group is set to release a down beat forecast when it issues an update for shareholders on Wednesday, despite potentially receiving a boost to income from the upcoming sale of management rights of the group’s benchmark airport fund.

In spite of the loss in income the group earns from fees for managing Macquarie Airports, market analysts believe that Macquarie’s departure from managing specialist funds would yield a positive impact for the investment bank over time. Macquarie’s stock price has felt a drag over the last year, largely due to its exposure to  satellite funds it manages.

Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG), a fund which operates toll roads, is also expected to be divested from the group. Restructuring plans for the fund are expected to be released over the next few weeks.

Macquarie has already restructured a 1.5 per cent ownership stake of the toll road assets that were previously held by the management fund. The investment bank recently acquired Macquarie Infrastructure Investment Management’s entire holding in MIG for a consideration of 4 million.

Macquarie’s internalization of MIG will be an extremely difficult affair, given the fact that some toll roads hold high debt levels.

James Ellis, banking analysts with Credit Suisse expects the investment bank to book a pre-tax gain of 1 million on the Macquarie Airports deal, which would have the effect of increasing profits for the investment bank to .1 billion or by as much as 35 per cent.

Macquarie Airports has paid 0 million in management fees over the last couple of years, with the majority of that amount having been paid in fiscal 2008. Macquarie Infrastructure paid more than 6 million in management fees during the same period.

Macquarie is expected to come under increasing pressure to make additional changes to its compensation structure, after it withdrew its initial plan to change the way it compensates employees until the Government decides on the final tax treatment of employee share schemes.

Despite banking stocks and global equity markets rallying over the last few months, market analysts believe that Macquarie’s performance during the June quarter has been relatively subdued. In May Macquarie said it believed it was “well placed” to grow over the medium term.

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