Yesterday's Macquarie Group operational briefing was carefully stage-managed to minimise discussion of the Macquarie Capital business, the big but troubled profit earner, and Real Estate, the recent heavy loss-maker.Instead, after an introduction from CEO Nicholas Moore, the heads of Macquarie Funds Group, Macquarie Securities Group and Treasury and Commodities Group talked about the growth opportunities in their businesses.Macquarie Funds Group head Shemara Wikramanayake said she had put together a team to investigate acquisitions in Australia and overseas. She says the group is open to a large transformational deal or a more specialised acquisition.Traditional funds management has been a small contributor to Macquarie earnings over the years. Wikramanayake says the year ahead, which should see a lot of rationalisation in the wealth management sector, presents an opportunity to change that. At December 30 MFG had $73 billion in assets under management, down from $78.6 billion in March last year. The big falls were in real estate securities, down from $3 billion to $1.6 billion, and listed equities, down from $9.4 billion to $7 billion.Head of Macquarie Securities Roy Laidlaw said Australia's number one institutional share broker had held its ground in the local market over the past year. The good news is overseas, where the group is expanding. Macquarie Securities has plans to grow market share in Japan, the rest of Asia, Canada, South Africa and Europe. In Asia and South Africa, where Macquarie is a full service institutional broker, it has had improved market share and panel rankings over the past year.Treasury and Commodities this week announced the acquisition of Constellation Energy, a US physical and financial natural gas trading business. It will be merged with Macquarie's existing US energy business, Macquarie Cook Energy to form an energy "hub".