Macquarie Bank


Jim Cramer tells Stephen Mayne to keep up the comedy act

It’s not often that a raw prawn makes it onto Youtube but that’s what you’ll find in the latest Mayne Report video defending Macquarie Bank against CNBC raver Jim Cramer, writes Stephen Mayne.

Everyone unloads on Macquarie, stock keeps recovering

Macquarie Bank shares soared today despite supposedly influential US stock picker Jim Cramer devoting his entire 6-minute sell segment on CNBC last Friday to the Millionaire Factory.

Short term credit rate still refuse to be tamed

Our short term credit freeze is refusing to thaw and the Reserve Bank is finding it much harder to cut short term money market interest rates than it thought.

Dick Pratt, Macquarie Bank and Bill Shorten…join the dots

The Sunday program’s Ross Coulthart has been in touch to debunk my story in Monday’s Crikey and stress that the only source of information for his cover-story attack on the Transport Workers Union came from within the union itself – and mostly from serving officials, writes Stephen Mayne.

World’s leading business rag slams “rapacious” MacBank

MacBank chiefs, Allan Moss and Nicholas Moore, probably won’t be too unhappy with the long-awaited Bethany McLean article in Fortune. McLean certainly doesn’t portray Macquarie in a glowing light, but she failed to provide any new damming evidence as to the sustainability of the “Macquarie Model”.

Rams pricing and rates out of line

Before skiting to Australia’s biggest selling newspaper that you’re about to sell $500 million in mortgage-backed securities – labelled a “lifeline” by the Herald Sun yesterday morning – it’d be a good idea to have the investors committed.

RAMS grabs bull market by horns, rises 17%

A vulture fund, a bank or promoter John Kinghorn buying back the company he floated at $2.50 a share at less than $1 a share after the unfortunate events of August? Whatever the reason, RAMS Home Loans Group rose almost 17% yesterday, writes Glenn Dyer.

Millionaire Factory in high stakes Murdoch slug-fest

The starters guns was fired yesterday in what should be the defamation battle of the year as the $21 billion Macquarie Bank empire takes on Rupert Murdoch’s $70 billion global media conglomerate.

Memo MacBank staff: thanks for the profits

In recent months Macquarie Bank employees in AWAs have been forced to work public holidays, weekends and late nights with no compensation. No wonder they are posting record profits — on Friday they received an email thanking them for their contribution…

Macquarie Bank confirms its fragility, pushes up rates

Macquarie Bank has confirmed its fragility and lack of financial strength by lifting interest rates on nearly $8 billion worth of low doc home mortgages. Glenn Dyer reports.

Babcock’s black box defies the credit wobbles

Babcock is now managing a whopping $60 billion in assets, although this remains well shy of Macquarie Bank which is up above $200 billion. Stephen Mayne reports on how it’s handling the sub-prime fallout.

Ironies aplenty as secretive Brambles gets into the outing business

The last time a corporate rival took a position on the Brambles register was way back in 1985 when TNT, then run by the controversial Sir Peter Abeles, engaged Rene Rivkin to snap up a hostile 10% stake.

Macquarie strengthens the Fortress as shares recover

Macquarie Bank shares have bounced by $4.30 to $74.35 in a recovering market this morning and the Macquarie Fortress notes have gained 6c to 64c after this announcement yesterday suggesting that all is not lost.

Markets rebound, CNBC man turns bearish

It was hardly the strongest of rebounds this morning on the market after Wall Street recovered all of Friday’s big loss with a 286 point, or 2.2% gain. Meanwhile, CNBC’s finance commentator Jim Cramer blows a head gasket over the fall out over the market slump.

If Rudd is victorious, how will he share the spoils?

If Kevin Rudd is elected Prime Minister, he now has to find jobs for two ex-Premiers, Bob Carr and Steve Bracks, and one who has signalled he is stepping down in the near future, Queensland’s Peter Beattie.

Millionaire Factory rebounds but the Fortress falls further

The market has bounced back on the coat-tails of a Wall Street bounce this morning but there was one notable exception – Macquarie Fortress Notes.

Macquarie Fortress besieged by subprime problems

If you’d woken up on Monday morning and wondered, “what will we see in the financial markets this week, more subprime problems?” you’d have been right, writes Glenn Dyer.

Macquarie Fortress breached

Macquarie Bank shares today suffered their biggest ever fall after embarrassing revelations about investor losses in a fund that has been hit by the contagion engulfing the US structured credit market.

Morning Market Report

The highlights and lowlights of this morning’s sharemarket activity.

A sad, profitable farewell for monopoly-busting Smorgon Steel

There was a tinge of sadness at the Smorgon Steel shareholders meeting in Melbourne this morning when the company that famously took on BHP’s steel monopoly in 1981 voted to be carved up by the Big Australian’s two steel offshoots.

Buying cheaply on a downswing

The remarkable resilience of the Australian stock market today is primarily driven by one thing – the sheer weight of capital looking for a home.

More Oz hedge funds rocked by sub-prime mess in the US

Another hedge fund closes its doors in Sydney to investors, albeit temporarily, as it struggles to right the ship after being rocked by the growing credit crunch and the subprime mortgage mess in the US, writes Glenn Dyer.

MacBank’s millionaires can’t ignore shareholder revolt

Macquarie Bank has gone to extraordinary lengths to defend its long-standing pay policies but in the cold light of day after yesterday’s shareholder revolt, things are going to have to change, argues Stephen Mayne.

Give me land, lots of land … the housing will follow

The Labor Party has claimed the federal government is causing housing unaffordability or mortgage stress. They claim this is created by high interest rates.

Macquarie v ISS: who should and shouldn’t vote?

Macquarie Bank has been aggressively fighting a rearguard action against proxy advisory powerhouse Institutional Shareholder Services on the contentious question of voting on the Millionaire Factory’s remuneration report at tomorrow’s AGM.