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’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…
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…
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…
Eric Daniels no longer the last man standing
Posted by Alex Stevenson on Feb 22 17:55. Comment.Yep, the CEO of Lloyds, is going to waive his 2009 bonus of £2.33m.
Not that he had much choice in the matter after his opposite number at RBS, Stephen Hester, announced on Monday morning that he would forfeit an estimated £1.6m in bonus, More…
Barclays beats
Posted by Neil Hume on Feb 16 09:25. Comment.Wow. That’s the early price action in Barclays after full-year results came in 6 per cent ahead of City expectations.
An early reading of the 116-page results statement suggests the beat was down to lighter than expected impairments. More…
Is there a place for morals in finance?
Posted by FT Alphaville on Nov 04 12:40. Comment.Is profit, in the words of John Varley, “not satanic” ?
Can big bank bonuses be justified?
Is greed good?
Join the discussion at FT Arena — the Financial Times’ forum for topical debates — where you too can wax lyrical about the soullessness of self-interest or the conscientiousness of capitalism. More…
Varley’s inferno
Posted by Izabella Kaminska on Nov 04 10:56. Comment.The quest for spiritual salvation seems very much on the mind of global banking executives of late.
Bloomberg reports Barclays CEO John Varley is the latest to try and convince god-fearing folk the world over that his industry’s moral code and primary raison d’etre are all good in the eyes of the Lord. Namely, More…
Boardroom execution at Barclays
Posted by Neil Hume on Nov 03 10:20. Comment.Just days after agreeing to buy Standard Life Bank, Frits Seegers, the hard-driving boss of Barclays’ global retail and commercial banking and architect of that deal, has “resigned” as part of a “broadening” 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 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.
Masters of the universe return
Posted by FT Alphaville on Jun 15 09:31. Comment.It is not even a year since the passing of Lehman Brothers (RIP) and already banker worship has made an unwelcome return.
The Sunday Times, for one, devoted an editorial and pages four and five to Barclays and how a certain Bob Diamond took it into the top league of investment banking. More…
Take profits in Barclays?
Posted by Neil Hume on Apr 22 17:05. Comment.We only ask because the bank’s friends in Qatar have just announced the sale of 35m shares.
From a stock exchange announcement released on Wednesday afternoon.
And the recent share price action. More…
Barclays to Treasury — more reaction
Posted by Neil Hume on Mar 31 09:10. Comment.…On the decision to shun the government’s toxic asset insurance scheme.
Alex Potter, Collins Stewart:
Trading opportunity now seems to have ended
When we last wrote on Barclays (16-Mar) at the time of the confirmation of talks on an iShares sale, More…
Barclays to Treasury – some early reaction
Posted by Neil Hume on Mar 30 21:00. Comment.Courtesy of the banks team at Nomura.
They see the decision to shun the government’s asset protection scheme as a negative for Barclays’ share price because the market will continue to worry about its portfolio of credit/structured assets. More…
Presenting the Barclays annual report 2008
Posted by Neil Hume on Mar 24 16:18. Comment.The Barclays annual report is out, and the full text is available here.
FT Alphaville has not had time to wade through all 330 pages (yet) but Jonathan Pierce has had a quick skim through the document. More…
Lunch with Mr Varley
Posted by Paul Murphy on Mar 23 10:02. Comment.A treat enjoyed by Jonathan Pierce, Abigail Webb and Robert Self of Credit Suisse – last Friday – along with Barclay’s finance director Chris Lucas and (inevitably) the head of investors relations, Stephen Jones. More…
Quote du jour – John Varley, Barclays
Posted by Neil Hume on Mar 17 17:04. Comment.Delivered at the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee on Tuesday afternoon, via Reuters.
VARLEY SAYS HAS DUTY TO SHAREHOLDERS TO MANAGE TAX EFFICIENTLY; SAYS ADHERES TO ALL LEGAL REQUIREMENTS AND “WE’RE NOT SHY ABOUT PAYING TAX”. More…
A slow motion implosion at Barclays
Posted by Paul Murphy on Mar 17 09:19. Comment.A naive market reaction, in our view, to news that Barclays is now subject to a full blown governmental investigation into its tax avoidance activities: shares down 3.1p at 87.8p during early trade on Tuesday. More…
Barclays’ exploding balance sheet, and other things
Posted by Sam Jones on Feb 09 11:01. Comment.Barclays released its much anticipated 2008 results on Monday, to general approval. Not sure how to take things at first, the market eventually reacted positively, and Barc’s shares were trading up 11 per cent not so long ago. More…
Barclays warns of £8bn writedown
Posted by Gwen Robinson on Jan 27 05:47. Comment.Barclays on Monday sought to reassure shareholders after last week’s steep falls in its share price but warned of a big credit writedown. In an open letter to investors, Marcus Agius, chairman, and John Varley, More…
From the desks of Marcus Agius and John Varley….
Posted by Sam Jones on Jan 26 07:32. Comment.Barclays’ acquisition of Lehman, not BAC’s ill-fated grab for Merrill, may well go down as the real deal of the decade on Wall Street. We await BARC’s Feb 9th results to see just how much they’ve scored from it. More…
House prices to crash 30 per cent, Barclays’ Varley warns
Posted by Stacy-Marie Ishmael on Dec 15 05:38. Comment.John Varley, the group chief executive of Barclays, told the Telegraph that Britain is only mid way through the house price slump – meaning the total fall could be as much as 30 per cent, with prices fallin another 10 to 15 per cent between now and the end of next year. More…
Barclays bends (a bit)
Posted by Paul Murphy on Nov 18 09:21. Comment.This is radical. This is personal sacrifice. This is the executive team at Barclays belatedly waking up to the fact that a very public humiliation awaited John Varley and Bob Diamond in particular on November 24, More…
Varley: ‘My perspective on Barclays Capital Raising’
Posted by Paul Murphy on Nov 04 15:31. Comment.Hat tip to reader DF Hunter:
Message from John Varley: My perspective on Barclays Capital Raising
Monday, 3 November 2008)Dear Colleague
Dear Colleague
There was a lot said and written More…
The John and Bob show
Posted by Paul Murphy on Jun 26 08:58. Comment.There was a broadly positive response from the commentariat on Thursday to Barclays’ £4.5bn ‘partially firm’ share placing. With the shares yielding 11 per cent – and with a promise of cash – the bank looks a roaring buy, More…
Barclays still confident of ABN victory
Posted by Gwen Robinson on Aug 03 05:33. Comment.John Varley, Barclays chief executive, expressed confidence on Thursday that the UK bank could still win its bid for ABN Amro. A share price slump in the past week has undermined the value of Barclays’ offer for ABN, More…
Varley defends Barclays’ ABN bid
Posted by Gwen Robinson on May 31 05:39. Comment.John Varley, Barclays chief executive, launched a spirited defence of the UK bank’s €64bn (£43.55bn) takeover of ABN Amro in an FT interview, arguing the cross-border merger could deliver substantial cost savings. More…
Barclays chief to press case for ABN
Posted by Gwen Robinson on May 14 05:49. Comment.John Varley, chief executive of Barclays , will on Monday seek to convince shareholders that Barclays is well placed to buy Dutch rival ABN Amro as he emphasises that lessons have been learnt from Barclays’ woeful integration of Woolwich, More…
Tell RBS to wait in the lobby…
Posted by Helen Thomas on Apr 23 08:40. Comment.Bit of a slap in the face for the competition. On the day that RBS, Santander and Fortis were due to meet with ABN Amro’s executives to relay details of their break-up proposals, the Dutch bank not only unveiled an agreed €67bn bid from Barclays – it also bumped back their meeting. More…
Beware the megabank
Posted by Stacy-Marie Ishmael on Mar 29 09:28. Comment.Shortly after John Varley took over as chief executive of Barclays in 2004, the bank’s top managers started using a new term to describe the scale of its ambitions, writes Peter Thal Larsen in the FT. More…