Breakingviews - Macquarie gives masterclass in following the money

Antony Currie - Reuters - 22/04
So much for sacred cows. Often, companies are tempted to hold on to an underperforming operation because the boss was instrumental in either creating it or building it. Such sentimentality has little place at Macquarie . Boss Shemara Wikramanayake helped start and later expand the Australian financial powerhouse's money management business. In a refreshingly dispassionate move, she's now selling the part managing some $180 billion of the U.S. and European public assets to Nomura for $1.8 billion.
MELBOURNE, April 22 (Reuters Breakingviews) - So much for sacred cows. Often, companies are tempted to hold on to an underperforming operation because the boss was instrumental in either creating it or building it. Such sentimentality has little place at Macquarie (MQG.AX), opens new tab. Boss Shemara Wikramanayake helped start and later expand the Australian financial powerhouse's money management business. In a refreshingly dispassionate move, she's now selling the part managing some $180 billion of the U.S. and European public assets to Nomura (8604.T), opens new tab for $1.8 billion, opens new tab.
Wikramanayake was global head of what would later become Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) when the group agreed in 2009, opens new tab to buy the U.S.-based Delaware Investments' $125 billion of assets in 2010. A decade later, two years after becoming overall boss, she oversaw the $1.4 billion acquisition of $68 billion in assets managed by another American outfit, Waddell & Reed, opens new tab.
Add in Tuesday's announcement and her three fund management deals highlight the changing fortunes of the broader industry....
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