Barclays PLC's (BCS) investment banking unit, Barclays Capital, is seeing trends that produced strong earnings growth in the first half continue in the second half, Group Chief Executive John Varley told investors and analysts at a conference sponsored by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Tuesday.

KBW in a note detailing Varley's presentation said: "The first-half 2009 trends at BarCap are again prevalent in the second-half of 2009, accepting the impact of seasonality."

Barclays last month reported first-half net profit of GBP2.98 billion, with 35% of the pretax profit coming from Barclays Capital. The contribution was driven by higher customer volumes in areas including interest rates and currencies, and capital markets activity such as underwriting bond sales.

The results in the division were also helped by the acquisition of parts of Lehman Brothers, which collapsed a year ago.

According to KBW, Varley said Barclays is seeing further growth opportunities in Africa and Western Europe, and that it is looking to grow its Asian retail business after recent investments in India, Pakistan and Indonesia.

At 1251 GMT, shares of Barclays were up 3 pence at 373 pence, in a broadly stronger London market.

Company Web site: www.barclays.com

-By Margot Patrick, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9451; margot.patrick@dowjones.com

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