BCS Barclays PLC

By Adam Clark

Barclays PLC (BARC.LN) said Thursday that its 2017 pretax profit missed analyst expectations despite rising 10%, and that it posted a net loss due to a sell down of its Africa operations and a U.S. tax reforms-related charge.

Barclays said that pretax profit rose to 3.54 billion pounds ($4.91 billion) from GBP3.23 billion in 2016. Total income dropped 2% to GBP21.08 billion from GBP21.45 billion, it said.

Analysts had expected a pretax profit of GBP4.02 billion according to a poll of 11 analysts provided by FactSet. Total income was projected at GBP21.17 billion, according to a FactSet consensus of 17 analysts' estimates.

Barclays reported a net loss of GBP1.92 billion, compared with a GBP1.62 billion profit in 2016. This included GBP2.5 billion in losses related to the sell down of the bank's share in Barclays Africa Group Ltd. and a one-off net tax charge of GBP900 million due to the reassessment of U.S. deferred tax assets.

The new U.S. tax law includes a reduction of the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% and limits on the deductibility of corporate interest payments, among other provisions that revamp corporate taxes.

Barclays said that it booked a total of GBP1.2 billion in litigation and conduct charges in the period, including GBP700 million in provisions over historic misselling of payment-protection insurance.

The bank declared a total dividend of 3.0 pence a share for 2017. Barclays also said it intends to pay a dividend of 6.5 pence a share in 2018.

Chief Executive Jes Staley said, "While we still have a number of legacy conduct issues to address, I am confident in the capacity of this business to generate excess capital going forward, and it remains our intention over time to return a greater proportion of that excess capital to shareholders through dividends, and other means of capital distribution, including share buybacks."

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 22, 2018 02:51 ET (07:51 GMT)

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