Macquarie adds to Canadian portfolio

Macquarie Bank paid C$147 million for Orion Financial, a Toronto-based institutional brokerage which focuses on mining and energy plays, the Globe and Mail reported.

Orion made a pre-tax profit of C$41-million last year.

The purchase will add to Macquarie's existing resource investment banking operation in Canada and provide a platform for the bank to expand its investment banking and fund management activities.

Paul Donnelly, a Sydney-based executive director at Macquarie who will move to Toronto to head the firm the newspaper reported.

Macquarie already controls a chunk of Toronto's ring road through a satellite fund and owns a mortgage funder.