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Macquarie Bank, which began winding back its residential mortgage origination business in March last year, will see its profits fall by 50% due to massive write-downs.
Speaking at Macquarie's operational briefing in Sydney today, CEO Nicholas Moore said he anticipated profit for the year to 31 March 2009 of $900m after allowing for an additional $900m of write-downs. The profit figure also incorporates $1.1bn of write-downs and impairment charges announced in the first half of the year. Last year the bank had net profits of $1.8bn.
Operating income (before impairments) is expected to be down 15%
The bank has also left the door open to further deterioration in its performance by saying the outlook remained "subject to significant swing factors previously identified, including market conditions, asset realisations, completion rate of transactions and asset prices".
Moore told investors and analysts that global market conditions remained exceptionally challenging, but said the bank continued to pursue "new opportunities arising from market conditions".
