The Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) share price is pushing boundaries again on Friday, with the banking stock nudging towards new 52-week highs.
At the time of writing, Macquarie shares are swapping hands at $225.79 apiece, up 23% this year to date.
This week's performance is linked to several factors, including the recent sale of its stake in AirTrunk and growth in its lending book.
Let's take a closer look.
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Macquarie share price rallies
One of the biggest drivers behind the rising Macquarie share price this week is the sale of the bank's stake in AirTrunk.
As a reminder, data centre operator AirTrunk was sold to private equity giant Blackstone in a landmark $24 billion deal this week.
Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) partnered with The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) to sell their interest in the data centre giant to Blackstone.
In total, the combined interest was 88%, netting Macquarie a handsome sum from the final sale amount. The deal is one of the largest data centre sales ever.
MAM (on behalf of its managed fund and clients) and PSP Investments acquired a majority stake in AirTrunk in 2020.
Since then, the company has expanded from five data centres in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, to become a leading hyperscale data centre specialist across 11 sites, including Japan and Malaysia.
Capacity across the portfolio has grown from 450MW to over 1.8GW, with a strong future growth pipeline.
The resulting sale comes after Macquarie and PSP made the initial investment bank in 2020 on a $3 billion valuation. The implied sale value indicates an 8 times return on the original investment.
It's no wonder investors are happy with the outcome.
Analysts believe this transaction alone could significantly boost Macquarie's performance fees. JP Morgan estimates it could be worth between $1 billion and $1.3 billion, according to The Australian Financial Review. This could impact the Macquarie share price.
Grabbing additional market share
Macquarie isn't just making waves in infrastructure. It's also rapidly expanding its presence in Australia's mortgage market.
According to my colleague Tristan, Macquarie's home loan business grew five times faster than the other banking majors in July.
Its mortgage book increased by 1.6%, compared to the broader industry's 0.3% growth.
Macquarie's current market share of owner-occupier and investor lending sits at 5.5%, thanks to its focus on the broker channel. This growth is driven by a reset in funding costs, which allowed Macquarie to be more competitive in its pricing.
UBS analysts suggested this puts Macquarie in a good spot moving forward, saying its "book grew on a net basis by $1.9 billion month-on-month".
Moreover, the lending growth comes at a time when industry lending is on the up.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) lending data, the total value of new housing loans rose 3.9% in July.
Meanwhile, new investor loans rose 5.4% in value to nearly $12 billion, up more than 35% from July 2023.
Foolish takeaway
The Macquarie share price continues its ascent on Friday. It is up 32% in the past year.
