Macquarie Group has reported its half year profit fell by a fifth, but its war chest of surplus capital has expanded by almost half to $A4.5 billion.
Excluding one-off items, Australia's largest investment bank made $A479 million in the six months to September, a decrease of 21% on the same period a year ago.
Macquarie is using the fallout from the global financial crisis to buy cheap assets offshore.
Earlier this week, Macquarie announced it would buy Blackmont Capital in Canada for C$93 million, its fourth acquisition in North America since May.
