ASIC secretly investigated Macquarie over conflict of interest claims
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission was investigating Macquarie’s handling of the Nuix IPO when the then treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, appointed its former chief executive Nicholas Moore to lead an independent review into the “effectiveness and capability” of the regulator.
ASIC’s investigation into how Macquarie Capital handled conflicts of interest in the December 2020 IPO had been under way for four months when Mr Moore was appointed chair of the Financial Regulator Assessment Authority in September 2021.
Mr Moore left Macquarie in November 2018.
ASIC chairman Joe Longo at a parliamentary hearing this year. ASIC will appear before a committee again this week. Alex Ellinghausen
ASIC closed its investigation three months later, in December 2021, reporting there was “insufficient evidence” that Macquarie Capital had breached Australian Financial Services licence obligations.
Macquarie raised $565.7 million selling part of its 76.2 per cent stake in the former glamour software company as joint lead manager and underwriter of the IPO, which saw shares jump from $5.31 to touch $12 the following month before a spectacular fall below $1.
The shares closed on Tuesday at $1.67.
The Macquarie investigation is revealed in an ASIC submission to a Senate committee hearings into the regulator. ASIC opened two Nuix-related investigations in May 2021, the month that The Australian Financial Review in a collaboration with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald raised questions over financial forecasts in the Nuix prospectus.
In addition to the Macquarie investigation, ASIC also opened an investigation into alleged insider trading by Nuix’s former chief financial officer Stephen Doyle and his brother Ross Doyle. A third
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