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From The Age....

Macquarie Group chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake has expressed confidence that political turmoil in the United States will not trigger a severe slump for markets, but said the investment banking giant is ready to pounce on cheap assets once economies are taken off life support.

Macquarie reported $9.4 billion in surplus capital and Ms Wikramanayake said the firm was on the hunt for potential acquisitions. The investment bank expanded aggressively into the US in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

"Usually when there’s dislocation it’s been the time where we’ve had good opportunity to put capital to work in inorganic opportunities," she said. "All our businesses are basically out looking for that sort of opportunity."

"At the moment, we’re not seeing meaningful dislocation because of the huge stimulus that’s there from the central banks and from governments supporting economies to an extent, and financial markets, through all this.

"But I would note, when the financial crisis happened, it wasn’t immediately that the opportunity came up, we had to spend quite a lot of time reaching out, looking, finding the right things."