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Jes Staley Says Barclays May Need 18 Months to Turnaround https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2017-05-11/staley-barclays-may-need-18-months-to-turnaround-video?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=bd&utm_campaign=headline&cmpId=yhoo.headline&yptr=yahoo
• Seeing off a shareholder rebellion, Barclays (NYSE:BCS) CEO Jes Staley has been re-elected to the board after apologizing over his recent mistakes, while shares closed almost 2% higher on the news. • Not for long? Shortly afterwards it emerged that the bank will pay more than $97M to settle charges it overbilled clients at its asset management business.
Jes Staley on Barclays' Growth Options https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/video/jes-staley-barclays-growth-options-031453006.html
http://webcasts.barclays.com/barclays532/files/Q117_Presentation.pdf
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/goldman-cuts-bank-stock-sell-172200390.html
Morocco's Attijariwafa Bank paid twice book value to acquire Barclays' Egyptian business and hopes the acquisition will enable it to increase its market share in Egypt to 5 percent within five years, the Moroccan bank's CEO said. The bank plans to rename the unit Attijari Bank Egypt and raise its profile in Egypt, CEO Mohamed El Kettani said. Britain's Barclays BARC.L reached a deal last year to sell its Egyptian banking unit to Attijariwafa Bank, one of Morocco's largest banks, but the value of the deal, which closed this month, has not been disclosed by either side. Kettani, speaking to Reuters on Sunday, would not put an exact dollar figure on the acquisition but said it was twice Barclays Egypt's 2016 book value or about seven times its expected net profit for 2017. Sources had told Reuters previously that the Barclays Egypt business was valued at around $400 million (308 million pounds). Kettani expects the cost of the deal to be recovered in five to seven years. Attijariwafa hopes the acquisition will enable it to increase its market share in Egypt to 5 percent within five years, from about 1-1.5 percent currently, and it plans to add new services such as leasing and insurance, said Kettani. In the next few days the bank will choose an international consulting firm to develop a five-year strategy for its Egypt operations. "Attijari Bank Egypt will be the group's entryway to Gulf states and East Africa," Kettani said. (Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Susan Fenton)
“The recent corporate results season proved earnings in the financials sector are on track for a solid recovery,” he continues. “Balance sheets are repaired, cash returned to shareholders and margins, as one would expect from highly operationally geared businesses, restored.” While UK banks have underperformed the wider market over the last decade and many fund managers have had little or no exposure, that is changing. Despite a recovery which began in 2016 the opportunity is far from over. For value and contrarian investors such as Alastair Mundy, who runs Investec UK Special Situations, and Nick Kirrange and Kevin Murphy, managers of Schroder Income, banks still look like they could offer some good opportunities over the medium to long term. The stage appears to be set for a continuation of the banking sector’s recovery, and we will watch the dividend story closely. Find out what else we had to say about financials and where the opportunities are:
UK banks have had their issues since the global financial crisis of 2008, but last week was a positive one for three of the UK’s big four. Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) all announced profits for the first quarter of 2017; with Lloyds’ and Barclays’ profits doubling. For RBS it represented a quarterly profit for the first time since Q3 in 2015. So we have to ask the question: are banks back in the black for good? Is the answer in the dividends? Last week also saw the release of Capita’s latest UK Dividend Monitor report. According to Capita’s analysis, the banks and financial industry enjoyed a 7% growth in dividends in Q1 2017. This is the second consecutive quarterly increase in dividends for the industry. As a quick side note, we must remember financials isn’t just about banks but, as we highlighted in our Spring 2017 Investment Outlook, they do make up a large proportion of that sector. While financials make up 25.7% of the FTSE All Share, banks represent 42% of that. With this in mind we have taken a look at the dividend yields of the UK's major banks and how strong their future prospects are based on dividend cover, which is the ratio of a company’s net profits to the amount paid out in dividends to shareholders. Bank Dividend yield Dividend cover View report Invest now Lloyds Banking Group 3.68% 0.79 VIEW REPORT INVEST Barclays 1.43% 2.03 VIEW REPORT INVEST HSBC Holdings 6.17% 0.13 VIEW REPORT INVEST Royal Bank of Scotland n/a n/a VIEW REPORT INVEST Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns. Note that current yield may not reflect historical yields. Source: Bloomberg as at 2 May 2017 As the table demonstrates, both Lloyds’ and HSBC’s dividend might not be sustainable in the long term based on the fact they have a dividend cover of less than one (dividend cover is worked out as the amount of profit a company makes divided by the dividend it pays to shareholders). Barclays, on the other hand, would appear to be a lot more stable with a dividend cover greater than two indicating profits are double what they are paying out to shareholders. It is also worth noting that even though RBS isn’t currently paying a dividend, rumours persist that it will return to dividend payments this year. The same has been said of Standard Chartered. Global growth is good for banks When interest rates start to climb banks will see their profitability climb too, although Richard Buxton, head of UK equities at Old Mutual Global Investors and manager of Old Mutual UK Alpha, cautions not to expect a rise in UK interest rates any time soon. Despite this Buxton says it is difficult to see why the more economically sensitive areas of the market such as financials should not continue to perform at a time when global growth is rising, and during a period where we have witnessed the end of the great bull market in bonds
Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) had its "outperform" rating reaffirmed by analysts at Credit Suisse Group AG ( ). insider Ian Cheshire purchased 50,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 2nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of GBX 210 ($2.71) per share, for a total transaction of £105,000 ($135,571.34).
I think we ALL need to take a step back, and take note of what jackbowers16 is saying. He's not making any personal judgment on the company, he's just making us aware of the experience he has on investing in the market.and especially on this particular share. For all those who are holding large amounts will need patients.
Diamond Says Staley Is the Right Person for Barclays Now http://finance.yahoo.com/video/diamond-says-staley-person-barclays-150814067.html
Barclays CEO Jes Staley Says Shareholders Still Back Him https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/video/barclays-ceo-jes-staley-says-120234810.html
Markets React to Barclays Earnings https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/video/markets-react-barclays-earnings-122518129.html
Jes Staley’s strategy of shedding assets to focus on a transatlantic investment banking and consumer business should be working perfectly this year. Most Wall Street debt-trading desks are doing brisk business.Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be the case. On Friday, Barclays Plc's first-quarter results caused the biggest one-day fall in its shares since the end of June. It’s a useful reminder to CEO Staley that competition is getting harder, rivals are bolstering defenses and shareholders will punish any sign that they can't rely on you.MARKETS REVENUE FELL4%At first blush, the British lender's numbers don't look too shabby. Group revenue rose 16 percent and pretax profit more than doubled. But one-offs clouded the picture, with gains from asset sales totaling 266 million pounds ($344 million) in the bank’s international arm, according to Shore analysts. Meanwhile, a goodwill writedown on Barclays’ Africa unit -- which is being sold down -- cut attributable profit in half.Worse, the bit of the business that should be firing on all cylinders, fixed-income trading, seems to be sputtering. Markets revenue fell 4 percent, with an uneven performance across debt, foreign exchange and equities. Barclays’ claims of tough comparisons with a strong quarter last year don't entirely wash. A Bernstein analysis of quarter-on-quarter performance, rather than year-on-year, shows Barclays traders and investment bankers delivering below-average revenue growth compared with Wall Street and even some Europeans. Behind the Pack How Barclays investment bank revenue growth compares with rivals Source: Bernstein Research Note: Change is compared to Q1 2017 This matters. UBS Group AG, which also had a pretty disappointing quarter in trading, can just about get away with it. The Swiss bank has been switching focus to other businesses such as wealth management, while it has delivered steady dividends and maintained a healthy balance sheet.Barclays doesn't have that luxury. It's still restructuring and selling assets, so investors have been pinning their hopes -- perhaps too firmly -- on buoyant financial markets and a recovery in trading. Without that improvement, Staley may have to find more cuts, says Bloomberg Intelligence’s Jonathan Tyce.The CEO's personal capital is crucial here too. His credibility suffered earlier this year after it emerged that he'd tried to unmask a whistle-blower. He says he has the board’s support. But, with a proxy advisor calling on shareholders to abstain from voting for Staley at this year’s annual meeting, and with regulatory probes ongoing into his conduct, there's still a cloud. One sure-fire way to get investors in your corner is to deliver. The first quarter trading performance won't have won too many friends.It’s not all bad news, of course. Barclays is still keeping a grip on expenses while lifting revenue overall. It's on track to close a stack of its unwanted assets b
Barclays chief Jes Staley has admitted he "made a mistake" after his attempts to unearth the identity of a whistleblower resulted in regulatory investigation, according to Reuters reports. Staley also said that he did not offer resignation to the board and is "cooperating fully" with investigators but maintains that efforts he made to identify a whistleblower who made allegations about a recently-recruited senior employee were not intended to breach regulations. Both Staley and Barclays are currently under investigation by the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and New York's Department of Financial Services is also looking into Staley's behaviour regarding the events which were alleged to have taken place in June. Staley had tried to identify a complainant after what he saw attempts to "maliciously smear" the reputation of his new hire, according to internal emails referenced by The Guardian. The FCA has the authority to ban individuals if they are deemed to be unfit to work in accordance with banking regulations. It also has the power to issue fines and reprimands. Earlier this month, Staley apologized to the Barclays board and promised to accept whatever sanction the board deemed appropriate. ""I have apologized to the Barclays Board, and accepted its conclusion that my personal actions in this matter were errors on my part. I will also accept whatever sanction it deems appropriate," Staley had said in a statement. The Barclays Board found Staley had "honestly, but mistakenly" sought the identity of the letter's author without appropriate governance. The whistleblower was not identified by the Barclays boss and the board accepted his apology. Reports however state that Staley can expect a "very significant reduction" to his variable compensation award. Meanwhile, ISS, a proxy advisor to many large shareholders, has recommended that its members abstain from a vote over Staley's re-election, though it has not opposed it at the bank's upcoming annual general election meeting next month. Fellow governance advisers Glass Lewis and PIRC have both recommended his re-election. Earlier this month, Barclays chairman John McFarlene in a statement said that he was both disappointed and apologetic that this situation had occurred. However, he supported Staley's re-election to the board. "Taking into account both the circumstances of this matter and his otherwise exemplary record since joining Barclays, including contributing significantly to improvements in Barclays culture and controls, Jes continues to have the Board's unanimous confidence and it will support his re-appointment at Barclays Annual General Meeting on May 10, 2017," McFarlane added.
Barclays reported its first quarter profit more than doubled on Friday, but its investment bank missed out on a bond trading boom that saw earnings surge at its Wall Street rivals and its shares fell in initial trading. Barclays said its profit before tax was 1.7 billion pounds ($2.19 billion), up from 793 million pounds a year ago and better than the 1.46 billion pounds average estimate of analysts' forecasts compiled by the bank. The British bank is seeking to press ahead with restructuring plans which have seen it shift towards a transatlantic U.S.-UK focus and an emphasis on investment banking under Chief Executive Jes Staley. In its trading business, income from its markets business decreased 4 percent to 1.35 billion pounds, as macro income fell 14 percent due to a weaker performance by its U.S. rates business and the impact of exiting energy-related commodities. Equities trading income also fell 10 percent, driven by lower revenue from U.S. equity derivatives. Barclays' Wall Street rivals saw bond trading revenues rise by an average of 21 percent in the first quarter, with investors adjusting their portfolios in response to rising interest rates, and elections in Europe. Deutsche Bank reported on Thursday that its markets business also lagged its U.S. peers last quarter. Analysts were lukewarm about the results overall. "The primary culprit was US rates revenue in the i-bank and a cost miss (could be partially FX driven). We do not see estimates rising on the back of today's results. Remain "Hold" on the shares," Jefferies analysts said in a note. Barclays shares traded 3.5 percent lower at 0710 GMT. However, Barclays overall performance was buoyed by a strong performance in its credit cards business and investment banking division, which advises on M&A transactions and equity and debt underwriting. REGULATORY ISSUES The bank also reported rising income of 708 million pounds, up from 651 million a year ago at its UK business. It said it would create 1,000 new roles in the UK in operations and technology, with a further 1,000 to come over the next three years. "This has been another quarter of strong progress towards the completion of the restructuring of Barclays," CEO Staley said in a statement. Staley faces regulatory probes in the U.S. and Britain and criticism from investors following his attempts to unmask a whistleblower at the bank, which market sources including Barclays insiders fear could unseat Staley if the findings are harsh. Barclays said its core capital ratio, a key measure of financial strength, rose to 12.5 percent from 12.4 percent a year ago. "The bank continues to ride a capital tightrope," Bernstein analysts wrote in a note. "UK macro and South African politics will dictate whether BARC escapes another capital raise," they added. Barclays said it would take a one-off goodwill impairment charge of 884 million pound