Barclays Pushed to Loss by Africa Write-Down
July 28 2017 - 3:16AM
Dow Jones News
By Max Colchester
LONDON-- Barclays PLC said Friday it swung to a second-quarter
loss as it wrote down the value of its Africa operations and took
higher provisions for conduct costs.
The British bank's second-quarter net loss was GBP1.4 billion
($1.83 billion) compared with a profit of GBP433 million a year
ago. Excluding one-offs profit before taxes increased to GBP659
million quarter-on-quarter. Total income was flat at GBP5 billion
in the quarter compared with a year ago.
Revenue at its investment bank fell on the back of muted
trading. Impairments increased at its credit card division and the
bank took a GBP700 million charge to compensate customers who were
sold insurance products they didn't need.
The bank is largely finished with the first stage of Chief
Executive Jes Staley's strategy revamp. The bank has completed a
retreat from Africa, retrenched it investment bank and closed its
"non core" division which held billions of unwanted assets.
However, shares have fallen in the last three months as investors
fretted about whether the new-look Barclays can produce returns.
Dividend rises are still over the horizon, the bank said it would
update investor at its full year results in February. The bank said
on Friday it now targets a greater than 10% group return on
tangible equity "over time."
There are also a series of regulatory issues hanging over the
bank. Barclays is being sued by the Justice Department over its
role in the packaging and sale of toxic backed mortgages. Mr.
Staley is himself being probed by U.K. regulators after trying to
unmask a whistleblower.
Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 28, 2017 03:01 ET (07:01 GMT)
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