Macquarie top dogs to brief investors on infrastructure, Europe

Sell-side analysts, naturally, will be looking for numbers to punch into their earnings models. They reckon Macquarie (balance date March 30) normally gives some sort of guidance at the February update; last year it said FY21 was slightly down on FY20, only to see a Texas cold snap reverse that call two weeks later.

The analysts have placed their bets ahead of Tuesday’s update. JPMorgan reckons recent commodity price volatility and global M&A activity should’ve helped in the third quarter, however it may be hard to match last year’s sugar hit from Nuix’s partial exit. Morgan Stanley also pointed to US regional gas price dispersion and commodity market volatility in its preview.

Fundies, though, reckon it’s more worthwhile taking note of the bigger picture. They reckon it’s worth reading between the lines, taking note as much of the executives that are presenting as the content itself, and how the message has changed from last year.

This time last year, the agenda was about Macquarie Asset Management (including MIRA), Macquarie Capital and Macquarie’s internal corporate operations group. There was no sign of commodities boss O’Kane, for example, who’s become a big cog in the Macquarie profit wheel.

In terms of the big issues, fundies want to know more about Macquarie’s green investment bank, which will soon be shifted into Macquarie Asset Management much like MIRA a decade ago, and the commodities and global markets trading business, which is tipped to have a record year in FY22.