Macquarie realised $565 million by selling down its stake in Nuix in the IPO,as well as collecting fees from the deal,and it remains a 30 per cent shareholder in the company.
At the bank’s annual meeting on Wednesday,chairman Peter Warne said the IPO team was separate from the Nuix investment team,and Macquarie had conducted a full review of the float process.
“We went through all the normal processes that we would normally go through to a very high standard. There have been no corners cut,” Mr Warne said.
Macquarie chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake argued Australia had rigorous processes surrounding IPOs and said an experienced team had worked on the deal,alongside lawyers and accountants.
“I think at the time of the IPO we all had no reason to believe that the prospectus forecasts would not be achieved. Now this has clearly not gone as expected,and the external environment is very very challenging,” Ms Wikramanayake said.
She said circumstances appeared to have changed quickly following the listing and acknowledged that failing to hit prospectus targets had been a blow to investor confidence. But she said Macquarie had been a shareholder in Nuix since 2011 and it had “real confidence” in the business over the medium term.