ft.com/alphaville

Lo and behold in Sydney and Shanghai — more deal-making in the steady metamorphosis of Australia’s acquisitive Macquarie Group.

Mac Bank, which is moving away from its old business model focused on listed infrastructure funds and looking increasingly to the US and Asia, is bursting into another segment of China’s capital markets, via a Shanghai-based joint venture with two Chinese state-controlled companies.

The deal, announced Thursday morning, comes barely after the ink has dried on Macquarie’s shiny, new Chinese joint-venture announced earlier this month with China Everbright to invest in regional infrastructure funds.

The new, new JV — Sino-Australian International Trust Co — has an initial capital of Rmb300m ($43.9m) and will enable Macquarie to arrange domestic and equity financing and offer yuan-denominated financial products, the bank said.

Macquarie holds 19.99 per cent - the maximum a foreign company is allowed to invest in a Chinese trust company — in the new trust company. Beijing Sanjili Energy Co, a state-owned power generation company, holds 60 per cent while state-owned investment company, Beijing Rongda Investment, has the remaining 20.01 per cent.

As the Wall Street Journal notes on Thursday, the trust deal signifies Macquarie’s push to access the mainland’s growing financial services sector. Indeed, coming amid a veritable chop suey of Mac Bank deals spanning the US, UK and Asia, you can see how Macquarie and the Chinese speak the same language — when they want something, they don’t muck around.

Among the deals the bank has agreed or set in motion since December:

• The China Everbright joint venture, agreed on August 19 with Hong Kong and mainland-based conglomerate China Everbright, will see the two companies set up two funds to invest in infrastructure businesses in the greater China region.
• An investment banking joint venture agreed last December with Inner Mongolia-based Hengtai Securities, which is still awaiting regulatory approval but appears to be on track.
• Its biggest purchase yet, the $428m  acquisition of Delaware Investments, a US money manager owned by insurer Lincoln Financial, announced the same day Macquare was finalising the China Everbright agreement.
• Talks, according to DealJournal, between  Macquarie and UK based financial services firm Fox-Pitt Kelton - Macquarie has neither confirmed nor denied the report, but people close to Mac Bank suggest a deal is under discussion.
• In late May, meanwhile, Macquarie bought Tristone Capital, a Canadian energy investment bank
• In February, it bought the US gas trading businesses of Constellation Energy.

China’s trust market looks like a clever move for Macquarie.

As the Journal notes, the sector poses fewer regulatory hurdles in making investments than China’s brokerage or banking sectors, and getting approval to set up a trust is also easier to obtain. Furthermore, the WSJ adds:Yu Jian Ping, chairman of Beijing Sanjili, said the joint venture is aimed at tapping into China’s hefty saving pool, where household savings reached around 20 trillion yuan in 2008.That’s 20 TRILLION yuan, or $3,000bn - a figure that Mac Bank’s Sino-centric dealmakers undoubtedly have emblazoned across their sights.  Initially, according to Macquarie, Sino-Australian will focus on raising funds for companies and local government entities and providing yuan-based investment products to wealthy investors. Then, of course, it will take over the Middle Kingdom - that is, if one or another of Mac Bank’s other JVs doesn’t get there first.

Related links:
Teflon Mac Bank: Ever onwards and outwards - FT Alphaville
Macquarie profits lower but outlook brightening - FT
‘Teflon’ Mac bank sails on - FT Alphaville
Macquarie comes roaring back - FT Alphaville