Results tagged “John Varley”

Barclays recorded a big jump in profits last year despite the recession.

The bank posted a year-end profit of £11.6billion before tax, an increase of 92 per cent on its 2008 figure. Most of that came from the £6.3billion sale of Barclays Global Investors and a strong performance from investment arm Barclays Capital.

Barclays has defied expectations to post a profit of £6.1billion for the whole of 2008.

However, the bank, based at Canary Wharf, said on Monday morning it would halve bonus payments as it prepares for a tough year ahead.

Barclays' bosses braved the wrath of shareholders today to explain why the bank needed to raise almost £6billion of capital from new investors.

The bank's chairman Marcus Agius told a general meeting of shareholders at Excel today failure to secure the promise of funds from the Middle East could have proved "terminal".

Barclays is to raise £7.3billion from middle eastern investors to avoid being bailed out by the Government.

A deal was announced today between the Churchill Place-based bank and investors from Qatar and Abu Dhabi, among others, which will see around a third of Barclays pass into foreign ownership.