Barclays Blasts 'Flawed Understanding' of Activist Investor Edward Bramson
11 Abril 2019 - 11:29AM
Noticias Dow Jones
By Adam Clark
Barclays PLC (BARC.LN) on Thursday struck back against activist
investor Edward Bramson's campaign for a board seat, denying that
it plans to pour more money into its embattled investment bank and
warning against destabilizing its strategy.
The British lender accused Mr. Bramson of having a "flawed
understanding" of the banking industry in a response to the
activist's public plea for Barclays shareholder support earlier
this week.
Mr. Bramson's Sherborne Investors vehicle has built up a 5.5%
stake in Barclays to push for a scaling back of the investment
bank, where returns are lower than in its retail-banking
business.
In its response, Barclays said Sherborne has used derivatives to
make its investment and argued that Mr. Bramson's interests are
misaligned with other shareholders. The bank called on investors to
support its current strategy for the investment bank, which include
Chief Executive Jes Staley taking direct supervision of the
unit.
"Essentially we have a leveraged investor seeking enhanced
returns by disrupting the deliberations of the board in favor of
its specific interest," Chairman John McFarlane said.
Mr. McFarlane also said Barclays doesn't intend to commit
significantly more financial resources to the investment bank,
after Sherborne claimed the lender could be forced into raising
equity or debt to finance the unit.
The vote on Mr. Bramson's appointment is due on May 2 at
Barclays' annual general meeting but no other major shareholder has
yet come out in favor of the activist's plans.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 11, 2019 12:14 ET (16:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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