Macquarie Group’s 14 years of continuous profits growth is likely to end this year after Australia’s largest investment bank reported a 43 per cent drop in opening half profits and warned operating conditions remained tough.

The fall in net profit from A$1.06bn ($686m) to A$604m was struck after Macquarie incurred one-off costs and write-downs totalling A$1.14bn in the half year ended September.