Patrick Coyne and his team may want to keep an eye on their parent. Cynthia Koons and Duncan Mavin of the Wall Street Journal argue that Macquarie Group, the Australian parent of Coyne's Delaware Investments [profile], may be the next investment bank to change hands.

The WSJ notes that Macquarie's profits and return on equity have been declining, and that its US$11.3 billion market capitalization is just 1.01 times book value. The paper wonders if Australia's big four banks like ANZ, or a Chinese or Japanese bank, would be interested in Macquarie. In Europe and the U.S., the WSJ expects banks would be interested only in pieces of Macquarie — perhaps like its U.S. asset management and mutual fund arm, Delaware. The article makes no mention of Delaware.

Macquarie bought Delaware back in January 2010. Then early in 2012 multiple publications named Macquarie as one of the leading bidders to buy much of Deutsche Bank's global asset management business, including DWS here in the U.S. Yet in the spring Macquarie reportedly made big cuts in two core units. And in September Deutsche's new chiefs decided to keep their asset management businesses.

As of June 30, Delaware boasted more than $170 billion in assets under management. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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