Macquarie Group Ltd
(ASX:MQG) has surpassed its half year forecast, reporting a 16 per cent drop in profit to $403 million. Following a series of profit warnings the results have come in higher than market expectations, while still representing the investment bank’s third half-yearly profit decline over the last two years.
For the six months to 30 September the investment bank says operating income was up 18 per cent to $3.7 billion and group capital came in at $11.6 billion.
An unfranked interim dividend of $0.86 cents per share has been declared, while earnings per share have fallen 21 per cent to $1.19.
Macquarie Group managing director and CEO Nicholas Moore says uncertain market conditions continued to make short-term forecasting very difficult.
Subject to market conditions continuing to return to more normal levels, Macquarie expects its fiscal 2011 result to be broadly in line with the prior year.
Macquarie Group earned just over $1 billion in the 2010 financial year.
