BARC Barclays Plc

By Margot Patrick 

Activist Edward Bramson conceded defeat Thursday in his effort to win a seat on the Barclays PLC board and force a move away from investment banking. But he said his firm could take fresh action if the British lender doesn't deliver better results this year.

Mr. Bramson's Sherborne Investors has waged a campaign to push Barclays to reassess its strategy combining retail, business and investment banking, and to consider scaling back the investment bank. Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley and the board dismissed that request as unnecessary.

Mr. Staley's vision for Barclays is for a compact version of JPMorgan Chase & Co.--the bank where he spent more than 30 years of his career. He said recently that he had no plans to change course, saying the bank was making progress in the corporate and investment bank and would stick to the strategy it set out three years ago.

In comments before a scheduled shareholder vote Thursday, Mr. Bramson said he expected a heavy vote against him after talking to big Barclays shareholders in recent weeks. He said those shareholders told him they had been asked by new chairman Nigel Higgins to hold off on any action.

Mr. Bramson said Sherborne considers it fair to give Mr. Higgins, who officially starts in the chairman role Thursday, a chance to fix the bank.

However, he cautioned that Sherborne would expect to see results. "Some of the numbers that we see are not encouraging. So we'll wait a quarter or two and see what happens," Mr. Bramson said.

After more than a year of discussions with Barclays, Mr. Bramson said his next move wouldn't be to keep talking to the bank's board and executives, because "nothing happens."

"We'd have to do something other than talk. What that is, I think it would be premature to say," the activist said.

Barclays chairman John McFarlane, whose role ended after Thursday's board meeting, had urged shareholders attending the meeting to vote against Mr. Bramson. Mr. Staley told attendees the bank has the right strategy and is "finally approaching a position to reward your patience."

The bank's share of global investment-banking revenue has risen slightly but returns on capital for the unit are below target and the stock price has declined.

Mr. Bramson said his effort to get on the board was positive because it triggered "a public recognition that the strategy isn't working."

Write to Margot Patrick at margot.patrick@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 02, 2019 09:25 ET (13:25 GMT)

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