Barclays suffers US$1.6b first-half loss from Africa sale

A pedestrian walks past a Barclays bank branch in London in Britain, Feb 11, 2014. UK Banks including Barclays, UBS AG, Royal Bank of Scotland and Rabobank have paid out billions in fines, and agreed to turn over all information that the US Department of Justice requested - EPA Photo.

LONDON: Barclays reported a 1.2 billion pound (US$1.57 billion) attributable loss for the first half of the year, as it took a 2.5 billion pound hit from the sale of its Africa business.

The lender on Friday reported a 1.4 billion pound loss on the sale of 33% of Barclays Africa Group, and a further 1.1 billion pound impairment charge on the sale.

Barclays in June cut its stake in Barclays Africa Group to 15%, ending more than 90 years as a major presence in the continent as the bank shifts its focus back to Britain and the United States.

The bank also completed the run-down of its non-core division of assets earmarked for sale to below its goal of 25 billion in assets, meaning the remainder can be folded back into Barclays.

“Accomplishing both of these milestones marks an end to the restructuring of the Barclays Group, and brings forward the date when our shareholders can benefit from the full earnings power of this business,” chief executive Jes Staley said in the statement.

The sale of the Africa unit boosted the bank’s core capital ratio to 13.1%, and the bank said that would rise to 13.4% once the full impact of the disposal is included.

Barclays posted a half-year profit before tax of 2.3 billion pounds compared with 2 billion pounds for the same period a year ago, before the impact of the Africa sale was included.

That was worse than the 2.7 billion pounds average estimate of analysts’ forecasts compiled by the bank.

In Barclays’ investment bank, revenue at the markets division fell 5% in the first half to 2.6 billion pounds, as low volatility caused a 20% fall in earnings at its macro trading business. That was offset by a stronger showing in credit trading where revenue was up 18%, while its equities performance was flat compared with a year ago.

The bank also took a higher-than-expected 700 million pound charge for mis-selling payment protection insurance, in what is Britain’s costliest consumer banking scandal. - Reuters