Macquarie in slowdown alert - Business - Evening Standard
       

Macquarie in slowdown alert

Macquarie, the Australian banking giant behind a flurry of takeover deals in the UK, says it has avoided the plunging assets at the heart of the subprime mortgage meltdown but is still facing difficult trading conditions.

The bank said it had a "solid" first quarter but warned profit growth would be slower than last year, which ended in record profits.

Macquarie, like other global investment banks, has suffered from slower deal flows, and many businesses have shelved fundraising plans.

Chief executive Nicholas Moore said ahead of today's shareholders' meeting that first-quarter profit fell from a year earlier. In May, Macquarie reported its slowest profit growth for two years after writing down A$293 million (£142.3 million) on a fall in European asset values.

Macquarie, whose European headquarters are in London, owns a raft of assets in the UK, including Thames Water, which it bought in 2006.

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