(Reuters) -Macquarie posted a 32% drop in its full-year profit on Friday owing to weaker performance across its commodities, global markets and asset management businesses, but maintained it was on track for "superior performance" in the medium term.
The financial conglomerate's profits in fiscal year 2024 were impacted by a normalisation in commodity prices from a year ago, lower asset realisations in green investments and weakness in mergers and acquisitions activity in Australia.
"Despite ongoing economic uncertainty and subdued market conditions in many parts of the world, Macquarie’s client franchises remained resilient over the last year," Chief Executive Officer Shemara Wikramanayake said.
The Australia-listed infrastructure investor's assets under management grew 7%, to A$938.3 billion at the end of the fiscal, helped by favourable market and foreign exchange movements. It posted a capital surplus of A$10.7 billion, above regulatory requirements.
"Macquarie remains well-positioned to deliver superior performance in the medium term with its diverse business mix across annuity-style and markets-facing businesses," Wikramanayake said.
The firm's commodities and global markets business - its top profit-generating arm that offers financing and lending services to clients dealing in commodity and financial markets - recorded an annual profit of A$3.21 billion, 47% lower than last year.
The financial conglomerate's profit attributable for the year ended March 31 came in at A$3.52 billion ($2.31 billion), compared with A$5.18 billion a year ago.
That was largely in line with a Visible Alpha consensus of A$3.51 billion, according to UBS.
The company declared a final dividend of A$3.85 per share, down from A$4.50 per share last year.
($1 = 1.5228 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar and John Biju in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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