|
Barclays gets a boost
|
 |
August 5, 1999: 8:23 a.m. ET
British bank stock up as profit falls less than expected; 1,000 more jobs to go
|
LONDON (CNNfn) - Barclays bucked a tumbling London stock market Thursday, reporting more job cuts and half-year earnings that were above expectations.
Barclays stock rose more than 1 percent to 1,772 pence after Britain's third-largest bank by market value unveiled plans to dispose of a further 1,000 positions, mainly from its international operations. In May the company said it would cut 6,000 British jobs, 10 percent of its U.K. workforce.
For the first six months of 1999, operating profit before one-time items was almost flat at 1.41 billion pounds ($2.29 billion) from 1.42 billion pounds in the 1998 period.
Pretax earnings slid by a quarter however, to 970 million pounds from 1.29 billion in the first six months of 1998. The culprits were a near-tripling of bad debt provisions to 320 million pounds, and one-time charges of 464 million pounds to account for the upcoming job losses (345 million pounds) and the sale of German investment banking unit Merck Finck (119 million pounds).
Earnings per share dipped to 46.2 pence, down from 58.3 pence in the comparable period of 1998.
The figures were better than most analysts had predicted; Reuters reported that the range of forecasts for pretax profit was from 765 million pounds to 898 million pounds.
Although the 320 million pounds in loans not being repaid jumped sharply from this time last year, they were down from the 363 million pounds the bank was forced to write off in the second half of 1998.
Another bright spot was the increase in contributions from investment banking activities. Barclays Capital, which has been a trouble spot for the company in recent years due to its exposure to emerging markets, notably Russia, chipped in 178 million pounds to operating profit, up 14 percent.
These are the last results before Matthew Barrett, former boss of Bank of Montreal takes over the role of chief executive. That post is currently being filled on an interim basis by chairman Peter Middleton.
Barclays was left in the lurch last year when chief executive Martin Taylor resigned in November in a dispute over strategy. After a prolonged search, the chosen replacement -- Michael O'Neill of BankAmerica (BAC) -- pulled out at the last moment due to a health scare.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Barclays
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
