Equities: Macquarie’s European offensive

Over the past year, Australia’s Macquarie Bank has built a pan-European equities business that is starting to look like an important force. Three acquisitions and some targeted hiring of research and sales people let go from the bulge-bracket firms during the crisis have created a team with the size to compete with the bigger players. The bank now has on-the-ground research and distribution in London, Geneva, Frankfurt, Paris, Munich and Zurich, covering 415 European stocks that make up 75% of Europe’s market capitalization (and more than two-thirds of the all-important Eurostoxx 600 index).