Barclays Share News (BARC)

Bob Diamond, the chief executive of Barclays, assured the market that the company has no intention of raising new equity capital as he unveiled a 5% year-on-year increase in underlying profits before tax. Adjusted profit before tax, which excludes exceptional items such as the impact of the bank's own credit and the impairment on its investment in Blackrock, rose to £1,337m in the three months to the end of September from £1,273m in the corresponding quarter of last year.Statutory profit before tax jumped to £2,422m from £327m the year before.Total income, net of insurance claims and excluding a £2,882m gain on the valuation of its own credit, eased to £7,001m from £7,238m.Credit impairment charges and other provisions put a £1,023m dent in profits, versus charges of £1,218m the year before, while the company also wrote down the value of its investment in BlackRock by £1,800m this time round. The cost to income ratio slumped to 47% from 76% the year before, while the cost to net operating income ratio fell to 66% from 94%.Basic earnings per share soared to 9.7p from 0.4p in the third quarter of last year. Net asset value per share increased 16p to 439p during the third quarter and net tangible asset value per share increased 19p to 372p.The core Tier 1 ratio remained unchanged from the end-June level of 11.0%, with risk weighted assets marginally lower at £390bn, down from £395bn at the end of June. During the third quarter the group's exposure to the sovereign debt of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Greece was reduced by 31% to £8.0bn."Rock solid capital, funding, and liquidity have been maintained. We will continue to generate sufficient capital for our business needs and do not intend to raise new equity capital. We remain committed to lending in the UK and are on track to exceed our Merlin goals," Barclays boss Bob Diamond maintained."Our focus on cost reduction continues to deliver results and we are confident that we will exceed the £1bn savings target we set earlier this year," Diamond added.The third interim dividend of 1p per share brings the pay-out over the first three quarters up to 3p.Commenting on the results after they came out analysts at Citi are pointing out that at £1,300mn the bank´s underlying profit before tax (ex-£2,900mn FVO gain and £1,800mn Blackrock impairment) came in 45% ahead of their own estimates. Likewise, analysts at Credit Suisse have also seen their own forecasts surpassed. Thus, they explain, "adjusting for (i) credit market write downs of £204mn; (ii) own debt gains of £2,882mn; (iii) Blackrock impairments of £1,800mn; and other smaller items underlying PBT came in at £1,541mn, still higher than Credit Suisse £542mn." These analysts also state that, "Barclays has performed well into these numbers, especially post EU announcements and this set of results should help the stock to consolidate this move. We retain our Outperform rating," adding that, "Outlook statement highlights October challenges but the group does not appear to be changing targets at this stage."Analysts at Royal Bank of Scotland, on the other hand, seem to be a tad more critical, having indicated this morning that, "In summary, Barclays recorded an underlying albeit low quality beat on PBT estimates, with a bit of a mixed bag in P&L terms offset by a robust balance sheet," but do however add that, "Without anything exceptional in the numbers, expect Barclays to perform broadly in line with the market although credit should be given for the strong balance sheet and the fact it remains out of the scope of the EBA capital raising process." --jh