Australian financial services firm Macquarie’s European unit in Dublin has paid almost €190 million in dividends to its parent in the past two years as its move to set up a base in the Republic in the wake of the Brexit referendum a decade ago begins to pay off.
Macquarie Bank Europe paid a €67 million dividend to its Sydney-based parent last June, following the commencement of distributions in 2024 with €120 million handed over, according to its latest annual financial statement filed with the Companies Registration Office (CRO). This brings the total to €187 million.
The company also created €510 million of distributable reserves in December to improve the financial efficiency in one of the most overcapitalised banks in the State, relative to its risk-weighted assets.
This was technically to be done by reducing the nominal value of its 1.275 billion fully paid up shares from €1 to 60 cent each, reducing its share capital to €765 million.
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Macquarie selected Dublin as home for its EU banking operations in 2018 to be able to continue to service customers in the European Economic Area in the wake of Brexit. It secured an Irish banking licence the following year.
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The Irish unit’s main business feeds into the wider Macquarie commodities and global markets division, which offers capital and financing, risk management, market access, physical execution and logistics solutions to a broad client base across commodities, financial markets and asset finance.
Macquarie Bank Europe’s net profit rose 14 per cent last year to €77.4 million in its financial year to the end of March, driven by a surge in net trading income as a result of heightened volatility within energy markets, particularly gas, power and emissions, the report said.
Profit on ordinary activities before tax rose to €101.9 million from €86 million, with almost 84 per cent of the profit being contributed by the company’s Paris branch. The company’s relatively new Milan and Oslo operations have yet to start making a meaningful contribution, it said.
Total operating expenses rose 7 per cent to €84.4 million.
“The change was primarily attributable to an increase in credit impairment charges within the company’s Paris branch, partially offset by bad debt recoveries, in addition to French tax refunds received by the company from the French tax authority in February 2026, covering calendar year 2025,” it said.
Macquarie Bank Europe reported a €26.7 million corporation tax expense for the year, with the bulk owed to the French authority.
The wider Macquarie group has a number of high-profile interests in Ireland. These include: the Beacon Hospital in Dublin, acquired from businessman Denis O’Brien in 2024; Beauparc Utilities, owner of the Panda and Greenstar waste firms in the Republic; and aircraft lessor Macquarie AirFinance.
However, the Australian group agreed last year to sell Broadstone Housing Investments, its Irish social-housing and mortgage-to-rent business, to the unit’s chief executive. It marked a strategy U-turn, having failed to build up an Irish residential portfolio of scale.
It is understood that Macquarie remains interested in the Irish social-housing development sector, but plans to focus on public-private partnerships.
