Curate’s egg

22 February 2018 By Christopher Thompson Follow @CGAThompson

The UK bank’s boss Jes Staley has pledged to double payouts this year to boost shares trading at 0.7 times book. Yet Barclays needs to reverse falling revenue to meet a 9 percent return on tangible equity target by 2019. Even then, regulatory risks linger in the background.

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Barclays on Feb. 22 reported a 10 percent year-on-year increase in 2017 annual pre-tax profit to 3.5 billion pounds, on revenue which fell by 2 percent to 21 billion pounds.

The bank’s common equity Tier 1 capital ratio at the end of December was 13.3 percent, compared to 12.4 percent one year earlier.

For the period, return on tangible equity was minus-3.6 percent thanks to litigation and misconduct charges and a revaluation of US tax credits. Excluding these one-off charges, Barclays reported a 5.6 percent return.

Barclays declared a dividend of 3 pence per share for 2017 and the intention to pay 6.5 pence per share in 2018.

Chief Executive Jes Staley has targeted a 9 percent return on tangible equity by 2019, rising to 10 percent by 2020.

Barclays shares were up 5.6 percent to 213 pence at 0800 GMT on Feb. 22.

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