Barclays Share Discussion Threads

[diku] 12/3/2015 21:21

If it goes against a strong blue FTSE tomorrow then its due to being ex divi alignment....it went up yesterday on ex divi day...

[megam1nd] 12/3/2015 19:45

Bounce off 250p was obvious, I think this is due a dip and can see this lower over the short term, hence Im short. Will be interesting to see how it gets on against what I think will be a strong blue day for the FTSE, could be stopped time will tell, but I think this could go against the grain with a fairly lackluster performance.

[davew28] 12/3/2015 16:13

LONDON—Barclays PLC is bracing for the arrival of “Mack the Knife.”

John McFarlane, a former Citigroup Inc. executive with a penchant for feng shui and playing the guitar, earned his nickname as a fearsome restructurer of ailing financial institutions in Asia, Australia and the U.K, often slicing investment-banking jobs along the way.

Next month he becomes chairman of Barclays.

Expectations are high. The silver-haired Scot could turbocharge Barclays’ shift away from investment banking, analysts say. “The stock is rallying just because he is coming in,” said Chirantan Barua, an analyst at Bernstein Research. “But he faces a strategic dilemma: does he want to make the investment bank profitable or just run it down?”

Barclays shares have gained about 14% since the bank announced the appointment of Mr. McFarlane in September.

The 67-year-old Mr. McFarlane, who currently chairs British insurer Aviva PLC and sits on Barclays’ board, has told friends that his primary focus won’t be on changing the culture at the scandal-prone bank, but rather boosting returns for shareholders. A Barclays spokesman declined to comment.

That will be a major change for the lender. Its outgoing chairman, David Walker, took the job after a series of corporate scandals resulted in the resignations of the bank’s chairman and chief executive. Mr. Walker made fixing the bank’s reputation a top priority.

Mr. McFarlane’s focus on returns will crank up the pressure on Chief Executive Antony Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins has spent more than two years wrestling how to reshape one of the U.K.’s last remaining universal banks. Last year, as litigation charges and regulatory pressures mounted, Barclays’ management outlined plans to cut the investment bank’s assets to no more than 30% of the company’s total risk-weighted assets, down from just over half.

But the transition is proving painful. In 2014 the bank posted a negative return on equity—which shareholders treat as a key measure of the bank’s success—and the net profit from the investment bank dropped 70%. Mr. Jenkins said that he would “take whatever action is necessary” to boost returns in the investment bank.

‘The stock is rallying just because he is coming in...But he faces a strategic dilemma: does he want to make the investment bank profitable or just run it down?’
—Chirantan Barua, Bernstein Research.

In the late 1980s Mr. McFarlane was given the task of turning around Citicorp’s London-based equities business, Scrimgeour Vickers. Despite bringing in consultants, firing staff and refocusing on key clients, the restructuring failed. Citi effectively dissolved the unit. The setback left Mr. McFarlane suspicious of complex businesses with high costs, according to people who know him.

After a stint at Standard Chartered PLC, Mr. McFarlane became CEO of Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. He shrank ANZ’s investment bank and refocused the company on its retail-banking operations. During his decade in charge he cut back the bank’s ratio of cost to income from around 65% to 45%, and ANZ’s share price almost tripled.

Some staffers dubbed him “Mack the knife.” His successor at ANZ later questioned Mr. McFarlane’s rationale for selling the bank’s lucrative Southeast Asian operations.

In 2008, Mr. McFarlane joined the board of the U.K.’s government-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and advocated cutting the bank’s investment-banking operations, according to a person familiar with the matter. His advice was ignored for years—until British politicians and bank executives came around to that view in the past two years.

Mr. McFarlane’s management style is based on meticulous planning, former colleagues say. For example, he doesn’t watch televised sports, a decision he once said saves him “hours of his life.”

When he became executive chairman of struggling British insurer Aviva in 2012, Mr. McFarlane spent weeks with a small team of advisers dividing the company up into different cells and working out whether each was generating enough profit, according to people who worked with him. He pored over each layer of the organization to work out how many managers there were and what they actually did.

‘When John talks, people shut up and listen.’
—Joe Nellis, director of the Cranfield School of Management.

Under Mr. McFarlane’s watch, six board members left, thousands of jobs were cut and a new CEO arrived. Results improved; shares have roughly doubled since mid-2012.

“What he needed to do at Aviva was more straightforward̶1; than the task at Barclays, says one major Barclays investor. “This will be trickier.” While Aviva was due for cost-cutting, Barclays might be in need of a more radical strategic overhaul, he says.

Mr. McFarlane may prove a foil to the strait-laced Mr. Jenkins.

As a young man growing up in Scotland he played in a rock band called the Sekrets. At ANZ and Aviva he played guitar and sang at Christmas parties and charity events, former colleagues say. This earned the banker the moniker “Johnny Cash.” In one window of his office at Aviva, the feng shui devotee placed a trinket to ward off negative energy. (Feng shui is a Chinese art that tries to harness good fortune through design and numerology.) At ANZ, he had bamboo shoots in his office, which represent growth.

Messrs. McFarlane and Jenkins know each other from sitting on the advisory board of Cranfield School of Management, a U.K. business school. Joe Nellis, the school’s director, expects Mr. McFarlane will be quick to impose himself.

“When John talks, people shut up and listen,” he says.

hxxp://www.wsj.com/articles/john-mcfarlane-barclays-braced-for-mack-the-knife-1426172628

[diku] 12/3/2015 14:39

Cheap money courtesy of central banks...

[dr biotech] 12/3/2015 09:57

I see some spanish bank has bid for TSB this morning. I had a few of those at floatation but sold them within a couple of weeks.

[portside1] 12/3/2015 07:25

on tv yesterday the markets are rigged by the big players and action should be taken they manipulate the share price to suit their play in the company

[gotnorolex] 11/3/2015 22:34

Five year high peak @ 6964 last week no good to you at all?

[diku] 11/3/2015 21:59

Hence the FTSE never rises!!....

[gotnorolex] 11/3/2015 21:36

And the punchline is ? blah blah blah ???

[diku] 11/3/2015 21:09

Talking of FTSE in relation to other indexes....once upon a time FTSE & the Dow had a ratio of 1:2.....compared to where Dow is FTSE ought to be around 8800....every other Index will freely rise unlike the FTSE!....the normal perception of FTSE has big international companies (Oily & Miners) is all blah blah blah....

[andrewbaker] 11/3/2015 14:51

Barclay's fallback is getting the price close to the lower trend channel, so further to my post in January about time to buy, it looks like we are close to another buy time. The overall trend is up, plus on the fundamentals, penalties have been paid or allowed for, and an improving economy will benefit the big banks which, love 'em or loath 'em, we need at such times especially as a recovery is in progress.

[cmillar] 11/3/2015 13:10

I remember when....
Feb 26th 2006
"The Dax has been higher than the FTSE on 3 occasions – each time there has been a sharp subsequent fall in share prices."

[extrovert] 11/3/2015 12:29

FTSE now 5000pts behind the dax, range used to be 0-1500.

[portside1] 11/3/2015 07:52

ken I will now not be going to CNA or barc agm . more important things to do now

[samartin] 11/3/2015 07:50

So where are we going today? More of the same or alittle bounce?

[portside1] 11/3/2015 07:50

62 years old .

[portside1] 11/3/2015 07:48

no ken have had more bad news my young brother as 6 months to live
I am gutted worked all is life . looking forward to travelling .
gutted

[kenbachelor] 10/3/2015 20:32

Portside - Did you go to Cheltenham?

[portside1] 10/3/2015 18:58

ken has given me many tips one was very good
do not put on what you can not afford to lose

[portside1] 10/3/2015 18:57

hasin . the post was for ken and ken a lone

it as been a another great day at Cheltenham
and can tell all the bookies have had a bad day
tomorrow is another day

I have backed two which I backed 3 weeks ago
parloues game
the young master will be happy for the place double
t win with both would be nice

the greatest week of the year

[hasin] 10/3/2015 17:11

portside i have had in the know tips from the horses mouth like CHIEF SINGER first time out Royal Ascot won at 25-1, you give assumptions which leads unsuspecting punters to lose their shirt.
I know someone who gave me all the winners bar one,the last race,on first day of Cheltenham festival makes you think what you are up against betting on horses.