Barclays bosses tell AGM turnaround is complete

Barclays bosses told shareholders the bank’s turnaround was complete and that they could look forward to payouts of capital including potential share buybacks.

At the bank’s annual general meeting in London, chairman John McFarlane said its first-quarter results were a breakthrough that showed Barclays drawing a line under a difficult few years. Barclays faces pressure from activist investor Edward Bramson, who is trying to rally big investors behind his proposals to shake up the bank.

Barclays has suffered weak financial performance and a series of heavy regulatory fines while upgrading antiquated technology and preparing to split its retail bank into a separate division.

After settling a long-running case with the US Department of Justice for £1.4bn Barclays reported a pre-tax loss of £236m in the first quarter of 2018. But stripping out that charge and other conduct items profit inched up 1% to £1.73bn helped by a stronger performance at its investment bank.

McFarlane said: “I believe this AGM marks an important turning point in Barclays' history. When I joined as chairman three years ago I thought it would take three years to complete the turnaround of the company, and that has been achieved, almost to the day.

"I do believe we have now moved into a new phase at Barclays, with the bulk of our legacy issues behind us and the business performing well.”

Barclays chairman responded to speculation about his future by saying he had asked the nominations committee to put succession plans in place. But he said he would serve at least another year and was not leaving yet.

The bank set out its turnaround story with Bramson, the New York-based activist, working on his demands. Bramson holds 5.4% of Barclays and is reported to be seeking a strategy change that could include selling off or winding down its investment bank’s trading operation. Such a move would release capital for shareholders, he is said to believe.

Jes Staley, Barclays’ chief executive, said shareholders had been patient when Barclays cut its dividend in 2016 and 2017 but that things were now looking up with an increase planned for 2018.

Staley said: “This is just the beginning. It is our firm intent, over time, to increase returns to shareholders. Our strong capital position also allows us to begin considering other ways to return capital to you in addition to the dividend - such as through share buybacks. This is something Barclays has not done in over 20 years.”