Barclays Africa plays down impact of any shareholder changes

Barclays Africa said it was well capitalised, that it had an independent board and that it would continue to operate as normal. By delegating authority, it avoided having to disclose the decision immediately.

In 2013, Barclays Africa was established as a leading African bank when 12 banks across the continent were brought together.

Ian Gordon, head of banks research at Investec, said he expected the investment bank’s poor performance would be “compounded by a characteristically dismal performance in Africa, and a raft of “exceptional” items including a further PPI charge of £1.2bn” when the fourth-quarter results are revealed Tuesday.

No comment was immediately available from Barclays.

Barclays Africa Group Limited is the majority (in some cases sole) shareholder of the BAGL operations in South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Ghana, Zambia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Uganda and Tanzania (Barclays Bank Tanzania Limited and National Bank of Commerce Limited).

“Barclays does not own all of the equity, but it owns 100% of the risk if something goes wrong”, FT cited a source as saying.

Barclays recently announced it would axe around 1,200 investment banking jobs under plans to pull out of Russian Federation and shut offices across a raft of countries in the Asia Pacific region.

One benefit of selling out of Africa is that it could address worries about Barclays’ capital.

Analysts believe Barclays wants to focus more on its core United Kingdom and us businesses.

The banking giant said on Sunday it is looking into its “strategic options” for Barclays Africa Group Limited (BAGL) in response to a Financial Times report stating it plans to quit the continent.

Barclays has had operations in parts of Africa for nearly a century.

In a statement, Barclays Africa CEO Maria Ramos added that the group remains committed to its operations in Africa.

Barclays Plc saw steady gains in it’s share price from Thursday 25th Feb, rising from around 160 GBX to a closing position of 169.10 GBX on Friday. That business had the only drop in pretax profit among Barclays’ four main units in the third quarter as it was hit by higher impairments and a falling rand.