Macquarie Group has recorded a healthy $1.8 billion profit for the year ending March 31, 2008.
The result marks a 23 per cent increase on last year's profit and highlights the 16th year in a row of record profits for the group.
Speaking ahead of the group's annual general meeting, managing director and chief executive Nicholas Moore said Macquarie Group has made a solid start to the 2009 financial year.
All business groups have been operating profitably, but profit for the three months to June 30, 2008 was lower than the same quarter the previous year, when market conditions were much stronger, Moore said yesterday.
"Macquarie's businesses are performing relatively well despite market conditions deteriorating since this time last year," Moore said.
The current state of financial markets means a repeat of last year's record $1.8 billion profit is a bigger challenge, as is making short-term forecasts, according to Moore.
During the latest quarter, good contributions were made by corporate finance and advisory, commodities-related trading businesses, foreign exchange, and institutional and retail broking businesses including equity derivatives, the company reported.
"We are very well funded and this will support ongoing business and growth," he said.
