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’The piping out of the Hester
Posted by Joseph Cotterill on Jan 30 08:51. Comment.Can’t beat a Sun headline to round off a national bonus neurosis:
(H/T Fleet Street Blues)
Doubtless Labour MPs — who left Stephen Hester crying into his £1.2m base salary as a consequence of threatening a parliamentary vote on the bonus — will be taking the good fight to Bob Diamond of Barclays, More…
[Something for the weekend] It’s not the banks, it’s the bankers
Posted by FT Alphaville on Sep 09 21:30. Comment.By Neil Collins
It’s not the banks, it’s the bankers
No inside information is needed to know what George Osborne is doing this weekend. He’s just taken delivery of the Vickers report, and must at least claim to have read it by the time everyone else sees it on Monday. We’ve a pretty good idea of the contents, More…
The Spanish acquisition
Posted by Neil Hume on Jun 02 09:10. Comment.This will probably go down like a cup of cold sick with Barclays investors — an acquisition of a Spanish caja accompanied by a £4bn-£5bn rights issue.
But that is what could be on cards according to Arturo De Frias Marques, More…
Barclays disappoints
Posted by Neil Hume on Apr 27 09:20. Comment.Barclays has kicked off the first quarter reporting season for the UK banking sector on Wednesday.
But its trading update hasn’t gone down too well in the City of London.
That’s because headline revenues were lower than expected, More…
Barclays – Too big for Britain
Posted by Neil Hume on Mar 29 16:14. Comment.We’d assumed Diamond Bob and John Varley were bluffing when they said Barclays might quit Britain for the US.
Perhaps not.
UBS bank analysts John-Paul Crutchley and Alastair Ryan reckon Bank of Bob could be the first to leave British shores – ahead of even HSBC and Standard Chartered. More…
Snap news
Posted by Neil Hume on Feb 15 07:50. Comment.Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Barclays to target 13 per cent return on equity; details compensation — statement and statement.
- Yell warns on profits; details new strategy – statement. More…
Next up for Barclays – a bad bank?
Posted by Tracy Alloway on Jan 10 11:20. Comment.Here’s a brave call from UBS bank analysts on Monday.
They reckon Barclays could be moving towards a restructuring — that is, shedding some of its “value destroying” pre-crisis assets and refining its business ops in an effort to avoid a Basel III-induced earnings drag and boost pay-offs to shareholders. More…
The wonder years – Diamond Bob edition
Posted by Neil Hume on Dec 01 14:58. Comment.Warning: this Bloomberg hagiography of Diamond Bob is only for those with a cast-iron constitution. Here’s a taster:
As 1,100 managing directors from Barclays Capital descended on the Grosvenor House hotel near London’s Hyde Park in late September, More…
A curate’s egg for Barclays
Posted by Neil Hume on Nov 09 10:35. Comment.Barclays is not joining its peers and promising a pick up in investment banking activity in the remaining months of 2010.
Diamond Bob could, of course, be low-balling expectations but the tone (and figures) of Tuesday’s third quarter results statement from Barclays suggests this isn’t the case. More…
Stump it up, Bob
Posted by Joseph Cotterill on Oct 13 10:44. Comment.
Related link:
Standard Chartered is off to the capital races – FT Alphaville
Exploring the Bank of Bob hedging trade
Posted by Neil Hume on Oct 08 17:10. Comment.Citigroup has a different take on the Bank of Bob hedging trade.
Analyst Leigh Goodwin reckons it is actually Nomura and not Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi that is seeking to hedge its exposure. More…
What Hurd, Diamond and Green have in common
Posted by Gwen Robinson on Sep 08 10:00. Comment.It’s getting ugly in executive-recruitment land. “HP sues to block Hurd’s move to Oracle”, reads one FT headline on Wednesday, while another proclaims: “Outrage over Diamond promotion”, while the BBC’s Robert Peston asks, More…
Bashing Bob
Posted by Joseph Cotterill on Sep 08 08:56. Comment.It’s tough being a Bob — or, a study in modern banker-bashing.
We said on Tuesday that Bob Diamond’s appointment as Barclays’ next chief executive was going to be read as a threat to the government over plans to force the bank to break up — since Bob could shift Barclays to America first, More…
Bank of Bob (BOB.L)
Posted by Neil Hume on Sep 07 11:00. Comment.No sign of a strong reaction to Tuesday’s news that Diamond Bob is to become CEO of Barclays:
Shares in Barclays were moved a bit more by new fears on banks’ holdings of European sovereign debt, More…
A Diamond Bank break-up?
Posted by Neil Hume on Jul 06 17:19. Comment.How’s this for fantasy deal-making . . .
We think Barclays is evaluating a break-up of the bank Political considerations and commercial imperative would see investment/corporate banking and Barclays Wealth spun off into a NewCo, More…
The board of Barclays feels your pain (not)
Posted by Paul Murphy on Mar 19 17:13. Comment.From Barclays’ annual report, 2009, published on Friday:
Actually, that chart does not include the fruits of Diamond Bob’s holding in BGI, the asset management business that was sold to Blackrock during the year. More…
Prop(er) pictorial irony at Barclays
Posted by Tracy Alloway on Jan 27 10:32. Comment.
More proprietary trading pictorial irony here and here.
Related link:
Barclays plays down impact of Obama proposals – WSJ
Surprise shake-up at Barclays
Posted by Gwen Robinson on Nov 04 04:54. Comment.Barclays handed more power to Bob Diamond, head of its investment banking arm, in a surprise shake-up on Tuesday that will see Frits Seegers ousted after three years running the global retail and commercial banking business. More…
Qataris sell Barclays
Posted by Neil Hume on Oct 20 08:19. Comment.But look who is helping — why, it’s Barclays Capital.
He never misses a trick that Diamond Bob.
Aside from the fees, Bob and BarCap will also gain some useful points in those all-important investment banking league tables. More…
[The Lehman Anniversary] The FT Alphaville archive
Posted by FT Alphaville on Sep 11 13:40. Comment.Travel back in time and discover a selection of FT Alphaville’s live coverage of the Lehman story — the run-up, the collapse and its aftermath.
The murmurings,
- Lehman says buy banks.
- Chart of the day: More…
Calamari Barclays style
Posted by Neil Hume on Jul 16 10:30. Comment.It is probably too early to start thinking of Barclays as a baby “vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money” – although if Robert E Diamond, More…
Lex: Barclays Capital
Posted by John Casey, FT on Jun 18 14:19. Comment.Bob Diamond seems to be going through a slightly worrying John Lennon-style “we’re bigger than Jesus” phase as he attempts to make BarCap the world’s “premier investment bank.” Perhaps it is time for Barclays to weigh up a spin-off of BarCap before it blows up the whole bank. More…
Barclays takes aim at Wall Street
Posted by Gwen Robinson on Jun 18 04:55. Comment.Barclays Capital outlined its boldest ambition yet, as Bob Diamond, Barclays’ president, announced a plan to displace the likes of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan from the top slots in investment banking. More…
The Robert E Diamond, Jr. plan for world domination
Posted by Neil Hume on Jun 17 15:35. Comment.From Wednesday’s investor seminar in New York.
Diamond Bob’s BGI jackpot
Posted by Neil Hume on Jun 12 08:25. Comment.Yes, yes we know it is all over the papers and in the 6am cut, but we just could not resist it.
From Friday’s statement announcing the receipt of a binding $13.5bn offer for Barclays Global Investors. More…
Barclay’s Diamond to make $26m on BGI
Posted by Gwen Robinson on Jun 12 05:04. Comment.Barclays president Bob Diamond stands to make a $26m profit on the bank’s sale of its Barclays Global Investors unit to BlackRock, according to the UK bank, reports Bloomberg. Diamond, who has been BGI’s executive chairman since 2003, More…
BGI sale to Blackrock nears, $12bn price tag mooted (updated)
Posted by FT Alphaville on Jun 05 17:52. Comment.All of a sudden it seems to be a sellers’ market for financial assets.
Usually knowledgeable sources indicated on Friday that Barclays is now very close to completing the sale of its entire asset management arm, More…
Mystic Bob Diamond
Posted by Neil Hume on Apr 16 09:15. Comment.The ebullient BarCap boss has been looking into his crystal ball and guess what, the better than expected earnings reported by Goldman, Wells Fargo aren’t a “one-off” phenomenon.
They will be repeated, More…
Diamond set for iShares windfall
Posted by Gwen Robinson on Mar 25 04:27. Comment.Bob Diamond, the high-profile president of Barclays, is among key executives who stand to make millions of pounds if the bank sells iShares, its asset management business which is part of Barclays Global Investors, More…
The 99% salary cut
Posted by Paul Murphy on Mar 24 16:38. Comment.Diamante Bob, of course.
Barclays president Robert E Diamond has seen his total direct remuneration fall from £21.1m in 2007 to £250,000 for 2008.
There’s no annual cash bonus. No deferred share award. More…