Base Case: Sale of iShares + £4bn capital increase:
Barclays has said it wants to avoid government
involvement. A sale of iShares would provide it with
headroom to avoid the APS and the reset of the MCN
(end June deadline). However, we worry that this would
not be enough and pencil in a further £4bn capital
increase in this cycle. Stressed book value = 145p.

They’ll be far too optimistic on GDP – say minus 6%. And a bit more dramatic on house prices – minus 50%?

Holborn Tube station and Chancery Lane Tube station are both 5 min walk or you can catch a 19, 38, 55 or 243 bus from the stop just around the corner on Theobalds Road.

Rose declined to discuss current trading at Britain’s biggest clothing retailer ahead of a fourth-quarter update on March 31, but said the firm had seen “some attrition” in business and there had been some “self-inflicted” problems.

Matthew Wilde, partner and head of PwC’s Hedge Fund restructuring team, said:

“Over the period since early November 2008, the Fund had received redemption requests exceeding US$223million but could only meet US$90million of these. With a further wave of provisional redemptions of up to US$65million in the pipeline, the directors of the Fund called us in to look at the options.

“It appears likely that there will be a very substantial shortfall to the Fund’s creditors and its remaining shareholder investors may be left with little. It is clear that there is much to be understood about the circumstances of these trades and creditors and shareholders will soon be advised of details of a meeting of creditors to which the liquidators will report their findings”.

Of the companies surveyed at events held in London this week for Chinese executives, the majority have not completed acquisitions before. Despite this, a total of 62% intend to look at acquisition opportunities (33% plan large strategic deals, and 29% are looking for bolt-ons). Europe is the preferred region for M&A investment, with the UK a favourite for purchases.

On a geographic basis, EMEA was the strongest performer, with revenues up 33% and a gross margin of 34.8%, up from the 33.4%. This performance reflects a strong performance maintained in the region throughout the year. The UK margin fell to 14% in H2, versus 22% a year ago, due to price initiatives and greater deals with landlords featuring upfront rent free period deals, which feature lower margins.

This was at the heart of this week’s legal battles over tax avoidance, according to whistleblowers. They paint a picture of life in which summary dismissal, ritual humiliation, and social events to match the tales of famous banking excesses in the 1980s, are the norm.

The sources say this management culture has been integral to creating what is in effect a tax avoidance factory at Barclays headquarters at Canary Wharf. Avoiding tax by exploiting legal loopholes was not seen as something questionable but rather the raison d’etre of the Structured Capital Markets department. “There’s such a macho culture in SCM and the deals are so big you never say billion or million, you just say 16 bucks or 16 quid which meant billion,” one source said. “The tax avoidance was so big it became the engine of growth for the whole of the investment banking arm.”

On several occasions, the sources allege, staff have come in to work to find an email from Jenkins saying a colleague no longer worked there. Sackings, which might be provoked by nothing more than failure to understand the unwritten rules of deference to the hierarchy, involved being marched out of the building by security guards.The office is reportedly rife with internal politics. In one example, a managing director who bought himself a Bentley was told by Jenkins that it was a very nice car, too nice in fact for Jenkins to want to see it outside the office. Thereafter the executive’s chauffeur would drop him out of sight around the corner. According to one whistleblower, a secretary was fired by another executive for booking a taxi that was a Volvo rather than an S class Mercedes.

The most lurid tales come from team-building away-days. Free cigars and champagne would apparently flow and at night poker tables would be set up. “There’s a babies’ table and a big boys’ table. The big boys’ table was all about showing who has got the biggest dick. Jenkins and Abes were said to have a couple of hundred thousand pounds on a hand between them. One executive made the mistake of beating Jenkins. He later said his bonus was reduced by the amount of his poker winnings.”

On one away day, according to sources, Abrahams came on to the platform dressed in a Las Vegas showman’s costume. Behind him were a series of props hidden behind sheets. One was an electric chair. As he strapped a director in, he had the line from the rock song that goes ‘I hate you and I hope you die’ playing. It was part humiliation, part making the point that anyone who gives away Barclays’ secret ‘know-how’ on these deals would get it.” Abrahams, according to one whistleblower, was also responsible for running projects that were kept completely under wraps, even from other members of the team. “A couple of executors would go missing for a while to work on them and were always very reluctant to talk when they came back. They were said to be deals for huge amounts, but it was all very secretive. The SCM file room has a locked file and you never find out what is in it.” Some aspects of this culture were not exclusive to Barclays. One source has described the activities of the Cow Eating Club, a group of structured financiers across the industry who would get together for lunch on occasions at a French restaurant near Smithfield market in London called Le Café du Marche. Here the bankerswould each order a whole cote de boeuf, marked on the menu as for a minimum of two people, and wash it down with a bottle of vintage red wine.