Shemara Wikramanayake's eight-year tenure as Macquarie CEO ends Friday. The Australian financial services giant, with a market capitalisation of almost A$100bn ($69bn), posted strong first-half results despite a tech sell-off triggered by US midterm election results. Wikramanayake, who owns 1.48mn shares worth A$366mn ($252mn), highlighted the firm's ability to spot opportunities in structural market shifts.
Greg Ward takes over as she hands over a business model geared to thrive during volatility, having produced record profits. Her final results showed a 50 per cent increase in net profit to A$2.5bn, with growth across three of four divisions. Macquarie shares doubled during her tenure on bets in energy trading, private credit and digital infrastructure.
However, the outgoing CEO faced criticism for UK water investments and recent governance issues, including a fresh A$100mn capital requirement from Australia's prudential banking regulator due to a "serious failure". Two major deals, Air Trunk sold to Blackstone for $15bn and the $40bn Aligned Data Centres sale to BlackRock, Nvidia and Microsoft, pre-empted the digital infrastructure boom. Wikramanayake warned AI will "disrupt everything over time", urging the group to remain cautious despite previous success.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing