Needy Macquarie doubles capital raising

Macquarie Group lifted the level of capital raised under its recent share offer to $1.2 billion thanks to the willingness of a third of its retail investors to stump up $669 million.

The group had already raised $540 million through an institutional placement undertaken in the first week of May.

Macquarie said at the time it was looking to sell $700 million in new shares in aggregate.

Rather than scale back applications from 55,000 retail investors, Macquarie on this occasion has accepted the applications in full. The bank sold the shares at $26.60, a discount of 27 per cent to the market price yesterday (thanks to the continuing bear market rally).