Macquarie and OzForex announce partnership in global foreign exchange business

18 June 2007

Macquarie acquires 51 per cent of OzForex, one of the world’s leading online foreign exchange providers.

Macquarie Financial Services Group and online foreign exchange provider, OzForex, today announced that Macquarie has purchased a 51 per cent stake in OzForex, one of Asia’s largest currency websites and one of the fastest-growing online retail forex providers globally.

The move will allow Macquarie to offer tailored foreign exchange services to its substantial base of 670,000 retail financial services customers within Macquarie’s Financial Services Group.

The deal will also fast-track the global growth plans of OzForex, which recently topped annualised turnover of A$2 billion in forex trades for the 2006 calendar year.  OzForex currently operates out of Sydney and London offices, and services around 30,000 transacting customers in more than 40 countries around the world.
The Head of Macquarie Private Wealth, Peter Coleman, said OzForex was an exceptional investment with an outstanding growth profile and growth potential.

“This particular foreign exchange business has great technology - it complements our existing offerings and services and presents us with the potential to roll out a truly global capability that can be integrated with our current and future domestic and international retail offerings,” Mr Coleman said.

“OzForex will provide an expertise in foreign exchange services that the Macquarie Financial Services Group did not previously have.  This level of expertise fits well with Macquarie’s goal of providing its clients with the best possible services in the market.

“Macquarie’s 51 per cent stake in OzForex also gives us the ability to provide a more tailored service to our expatriate and international clients as well as the opportunity to provide OzForex clients with access to more extensive products, advice and services.”

Under the deal, OzForex will become the recommended supplier of foreign exchange to Macquarie’s 383,000 Cash Management Trust clients, as well as clients trading in international equities and those who as part of their employer Employee Share Ownership Plans need to sell shares and repatriate proceeds in a foreign currency.

Two Macquarie directors will join the OzForex board – Peter Coleman and the Head of Macquarie Financial Services Group, Peter Maher.  In addition, Macquarie Division Director Neil Helm will move across to become the Sydney-based CEO of OzForex, bringing 16 years of experience in financial services with Accenture, BT and the past seven years playing a leading role in building Macquarie’s Private Wealth business. 

"This is an exciting opportunity for both partners to build upon an outstanding forex business in a rapidly expanding global market,” Mr Helm said.

“By leveraging Macquarie's global reach and OzForex's outstanding customer-focused team and scalable operating model, we believe we can "supercharge" the growth of OzForex while maintaining a commitment to performance and quality for our staff and our customers.”

OzForex will continue business as usual, maintaining its brand, offices and independently run operations.  OzForex joint managing directors Matthew Gilmour and Gary Lord will continue in their full time roles, with an increased focus on offshore expansion. 

All staff at OzForex will remain with overall customer service staff expected to grow during the coming year.
“We are very pleased to be announcing this deal with Macquarie today,” Mr Gilmour, founder and joint managing director of OzForex, said.  “We set out to create a business that would deliver good value forex services to smaller investors and businesses.  After years of fantastic support from our customers, this deal gives us the springboard to expand our range of forex services to both businesses and individuals, and to continue extending our brand into new markets around the world.

“Our focus will be to continue doing what we do best – which is delivering high end forex services to small and medium-sized customers,” Mr Gilmour said.

He said next steps in the growth of the OzForex business include plans to push even more strongly into the large UK forex market, as well as open a new office in Toronto, Canada in July, and continue the development of new products and services for customers.

“We are constantly improving our product range and delivery,” Mr Gilmour said. “We recently rolled out the ability for corporate customers to book and pre-deliver forward rate deals online, and have received very positive feedback on the ease of the new service compared to traditional bank systems.”

Mr Coleman said that from a Macquarie point of view, it was another major plank in Macquarie’s commitment to providing clients with a world of opportunity.  He said that in a globalising world Macquarie - through OzForex - would help to take Australian small business and retail clients to the world.  In particular, the deal will allow Macquarie to provide its clients with more competitive retail foreign exchange services. 

“Our 51 per cent stake in OzForex is part of our commitment to our current and future clients that we will continue to find ways to provide them with broader services, access to more markets and improved financial services facilities,” Mr Coleman said.

Mr Coleman added that the addition of the OzForex partnership to the Macquarie Financial Services Group’s offering indicated Macquarie’s commitment to supporting the extension of quality financial services to the Australian community.

“The OzForex offering truly does revolutionise Australians’ access to foreign exchange as it provides easy access to competitive foreign exchange services for retail consumers in Australia. This level of access to foreign exchange services has never before been so easily available in Australia.”
ends

About Macquarie Financial Services Group
The Financial Services Group is the primary relationship manager for Macquarie Bank’s retail client base in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. Services include the distribution of the Cash Management Trust, Wrap and superannuation administration platforms, relationship management for 15,000 independent financial advisers throughout Australia, as well as stockbroking, private banking and wealth management. The Group is now benefiting from six years of investment and a diversification of its business to include the manufacture of managed funds and the distribution of third party funds. It is part of the Macquarie Bank Group, a diversified international provider of investment banking and financial services. For further information please go to www.macquarie.com.au

About OzForex
Established in Sydney in 1998 and operating out of offices in Sydney and London, OzForex is one of the world’s leading foreign exchange providers.  OzForex deals in more than 17 currencies and serves around 30,000 transacting customers in more than 40 countries around the world.  OzForex deals in electronic funds transfer for businesses and individuals who need to transfer funds from one country to another.  For further information please go to www.ozforex.com.au.

For more information, please contact:

Irene O'Brien
Head of PR & Communication
Macquarie Financial Services Group
Macquarie Funds Management Group
Tel: (612) 8232 3241
Mobile: (61) 417 260 309