Barclays to Return $12.6 Billion to Shareholders, Reorganize Divisions — 2nd Update

By Elena Vardon and Ian Walker

Barclays plans to return at least 10 billion pounds ($12.60 billion) to shareholders between 2024 and 2026 and reorganize the business as part of its long-awaited strategy update.

The U.K. bank plans to return the capital through dividends and share buybacks and increase the number of business units to five from three, as Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan moves to restore investor confidence and reverse the bank's flagging share price.

Barclays also said that it plans a return on tangible equity greater than 10% for 2024 and greater than 12% for 2026, ahead of its long-awaited strategy update.

"Our new three-year plan, which we will be announcing at the investor update today, is designed to further improve Barclays' operational and financial performance, driving higher returns, and predictable, attractive shareholder distributions," C. S. Venkatakrishnan said.

The FTSE 100-listed lender posted a pretax profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 of GBP110 million, compared with GBP1.31 billion a year earlier and an estimated GBP238 million taken from a company-compiled consensus.

It booked a GBP927 million charge from previously flagged structural cost actions while analysts had expected a GBP825 million hit. This brings total structural cost actions for the year as a whole to GBP1.05 billion compared with GBP151 million.

The London-listed group also outlined a reorganization of the business in five operating divisions from the current three. These are Barclays U.K., Barclays U.K. Corporate Bank, Barclays Private Bank and Wealth Management, Barclays Investment Bank and Barclays U.S. Consumer Bank.

The update is expected to be well received, analysts at Citi said in a note. Over the past 12 months, Barclays' share has lost over 15% of its value.

Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com and Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 20, 2024 03:22 ET (08:22 GMT)

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