LONDON (Alliance News) - Barclays PLC Thursday said it would stop offering wealth management services in about 140 countries by 2016, as part of an effort to simplify the business and increase its profits.
Barclays estimates its wealth segment will still have access to about 86% of global wealth as it will focus on around 70 markets where it has scale and can achieve higher profitability, down from over 200 previously.
Barclays was willing to sacrifice short-term revenues in order to build a more profitable business, according to a spokesman.
Barclays Wealth and Investment Management, which has around GBP200 billion of assets under management, made a GBP47 million pretax profit for the six months to June 30, compared with GBP99 million for the 2012 half-year. It made a return on equity of 2.5%, down from 7.3% the half-year prior.
Barclays appointed a new chief executive of its wealth segment on Monday. Peter Horrell will take the role on a permanent basis after serving as interim CEO since April, when Barclays tasked him with "working more closely with the corporate and retail banks as a platform for future growth".
Barclays shares were Thursday quoted at 268.1 pence, down 4.9 pence, or 1.8%.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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