Rewrites throughout with CEO comments on exposure to US regulatory changes under President Trump

By Byron Kaye and Himanshi Akhand

Feb 11 (Reuters) - Top Australian investment bank Macquarie Group MQG.AX on Tuesday downplayed its exposure to the U.S. green energy sector which has been up-ended by executive orders from President Donald Trump, as it posted a flat third-quarter profit.

The bank, which makes a third of its profit in the Americas, said that since Trump signed a series of executive orders to ban or freeze government benefits for sustainable energy investments it had reviewed its U.S. assets and found minimal exposure.

"In the U.S., we have very little in the way of investments," said Macquarie CEO Shemara Wikramanayake on a call with analysts, referring to the company's two main green energy funds.

Of those few U.S. green energy assets, "some of them benefit from tax credits; that hasn't been changed. Some of them benefit from disbursements, and there's a review of disbursements going on, but ours have all been committed and been legally obligated."

Macquarie has not invested in U.S. offshore wind farms, a sector that Trump has hit with a freeze on new permits, and may even benefit from faster release of permits for "conventional" energy, Wikramanayake added.

Macquarie's review of its potentially vulnerable assets reflects a broader global pattern of companies running a stocktake of U.S. operations to keep up with a fast-changing regulatory environment, including tariffs on steel and aluminium which Trump ordered this week.

The bank's profit in the December quarter came in flat compared to the same period a year earlier, as higher fee income from its asset management and capital markets divisions plus volume growth in its Australian retail banking unit were offset by weaker income at its energy trading unit.

Macquarie, one of North America's biggest gas marketers, buys natural gas and moves it along pipelines and grids.

Its energy trading business became the company's main earnings engine after extreme weather events in the U.S. and Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine rocked energy markets. As volatility has eased, energy trading profits have declined, the company has said.

Macquarie did not give dollar figures in its limited quarterly update and did not give financial forecasts. Its shares were 2.4% higher by midsession, against a 0.25% gain on the broader Australian market .AXJO.

($1 = 1.5934 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Byron Kaye in Sydney and Himanshi Akhand and Aaditya Govind Rao in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar, Alan Barona and Sonali Paul)

((Himanshi.Akhand@thomsonreuters.comAaditya.govindrao@thomsonreuters.com))