Inside Macquarie’s push for a bigger slice of Europe
Paris | Last month, Macquarie boss Shemara Wikramanayake went to Italy with a large pair of scissors. Her mission: to cut the ribbon at the company’s newly leased office in Milan, where the group’s investing and deal-making has stepped up a gear.
A week earlier, Macquarie execs from around Europe gathered on a balmy Paris evening at the rooftop residence of Australia’s ambassador, with its unrivalled vista of the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop, to celebrate the opening of a new office in the French capital.
Macquarie’s Europe boss, Paul Plewman, looks out from the company’s Paris office. Nathan Laine
Macquarie’s upgraded Parisian digs are on the Champs-Élysées, no less – the city’s premier thoroughfare. It’s a statement of intent, says Macquarie’s European boss Paul Plewman. “It is important to show a commitment: we’re based in a location which will show clients that Macquarie is serious about France.”
Plewman is based in London, the longstanding bastion of Macquarie’s European operations. But its recent pair of new offices point to a strategic shift at Macquarie that is gathering momentum: a broader assault on the massive EU market.
In Paris, Macquarie poached a senior Lazard exec, Fady Lahame, whose newly built team is looking to expand Macquarie Capital’s relationships and ensure it can offer the full gamut of MacCap services to French clients. A similar process is underway in Milan under the leadership of Italian-born MacCap veteran Roberto Purcaro.
The headcount at Macquarie’s continental European outposts, which includes several smaller or niche operations in 12 other EU cities, has grown by almost a third in the past three years.
The Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) business now accounts for about a quarter of
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