Macquarie hiring and expanding in South Africa

Foreign banks with a presence in South Africa have been keeping a low profile and switching to survival mode. Even the ones that are doing quite well in the country tend to run lean operations, as they cannot be seen to splash out on new recruits when their head offices in the US or Europe are laying people off. This current rule has one notable exception, though: Australia's Macquarie Bank is expanding in South Africa and recruiting new staff.

Despite a just-announced 52% drop in annual profits, the first since 1992, Macquarie is still doing better than its peers and still looking to diversification and expansion abroad as a guarantee of future growth. In its new Annual Report the bank states that its Macquarie Securities Group, created last year from the merger of the Equity Markets Group and Macquarie Capital Securities, is planning to grow "the derivatives business in South Africa" and to provide "the global institutional derivatives platform to clients." To this end it is engaging in "selective recruitment" in the country.

"Macquarie is definitely a bit of an exception among foreign banks, mainly because it has managed its business very conservatively and wisely so it is in a position to expand," says Mike Atter, South Africa country manager for Robert Walters Professional Recruitment Services. "Both offices, the one in Johannesburg and the one in Cape Town, continue to hire but they need people with at least three, possibly five years' experience."

Macquarie, which has just completed a A$540m capital raising selling shares at a 20% discount, has radically overhauled its remuneration policy. Once known as the "millionaires' factory" for its generous bonus schemes, the bank is now firmly emphasising performance-based remuneration with "a greater emphasis on longer-term incentives."

Just to prove it, Macquarie's Ceo Nicholas Moore has gone from being Australia's best paid banking executive (A$27m) to being the least well paid (A$300,000), all in the space of a year.

But in South Africa, Macquarie is keen to attract people of talent and experience and, given their rarity value, the new recruits can be sure to receive a competitive package. "Good people are thin on the ground," says Debbie Goodman-Bhyat, managing director of Jack Hammer Executive Headhunters. "If you do not pay them well they'll just walk away, whoever you are."

Macquarie is keen to leave its "millionaires' factory" tag behind, but it may create a few Rand millionaires yet.