The banking firm that owns Southern Water has recorded a £4bn profit.

The Guardian reports that Australia-based Macquarie Bank posted an annual net profit of A$5.18bn (£4bn), up 10 per cent from last year.

Analysts were expecting profits of A$4.96bn for the year to 31 March 2023, the newspaper reported.

Macquarie has recently faced criticism, with Southern Water, which it owns, accused of discharging raw sewage into the sea.

During the first eight days of November 2022, Southern Water released raw sewage for more than 3,700 hours at 83 bathing water beaches.

Excess sewage tanks have been installed at Woolston Wastewater Treatment Works in a bid to combat the problem.

It comes as thousands of households in Southampton have gone without water in three separate outages in recent months.

Macquarie also faced political scrutiny during its ownership of Thames Water from 2006 to 2017.

The Australian banking company owns an array of assets, including retail and investment banking activities, and infrastructure ownership.

The value of its assets under management has increased by 10 per cent to A$870.8bn, and 71 per cent of its profits were derived from outside Australia.

Macquarie's overall profit was also buoyed by its commodities business, which accounted for 51 per cent of the company's profit.

Top commodity trader Nick O’Kane earned A$58m through a profit-share agreement, surpassing Macquarie's CEO, Shemara Wikramanayake, who earned A$33m.

The announcement comes as BP and Shell reported robust profits, partly due to improvements in their trading divisions from volatile energy markets.