2023-12-05 18:22:27
Citigroup and Bank of America were left with some Barclays shares after failing to identify enough demand for a £510 million stake sold by Qatar Holding, people familiar with the matter told Archyde.com.
The deal’s two bookrunners moved to sell a 2.3% stake in the bank on Monday, part of a move by Qatar to reduce its crisis-era investment in British bank Barclays , which is struggling to reinvigorate its share price.
Barclays, BofA and Citigroup declined to comment. Qatar Holding did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of normal business hours.
Archyde.com could not establish how much of the stake sold by the Qatari sovereign fund the two banks retained. Banks can sell the shares over time.
The banks priced the deal at 141 pence, a 1.4 percent discount to Barclays’ closing share price at 2120 GMT on Monday, a source close to the matter told Archyde.com.
However, only part of the offer was placed with investors, with the rest remaining in the hands of investment banks, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Barclays shares fell 4.5% on Tuesday morning following the block trade and closed down about 2.5%.
Qatar became Barclays’ biggest shareholder during the 2008 financial crisis, when it injected 4 billion pounds into the British bank in a deal that avoided a taxpayer bailout. He remains a significant shareholder in the bank after Monday’s sale.
Britain’s financial watchdog later fined Barclays $55 million for commissions paid to Qatari entities in connection with the 2008 fundraising, and Barclays said it would appeal the decision. .
This year, Barclays began work on plans to save up to 1 billion pounds, which could involve cutting 2,000 jobs, mainly in its administrative departments, Archyde.com reported last month.
It is also selling its consumer finance unit in Germany and plans to spin off part of its merchant services business in the domestic market, Archyde.com previously reported.
Barclays has also expressed interest in acquiring Tesco’s banking business. ($1 = 0.7945 pounds) (Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro and Anousha Sakoui; Editors Elisa Martinuzzi and Alexander Smith)
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