Barclays plc (LON: BARC) said on Thursday that its net profit in 2020 posted a 38% year over year decline to £1.53 billion. Its corporate and investment bank, however, saw a 29% annualised growth in profit to £2.55 billion. Chief Executive James Edward Staley commented on the financial report on Thursday and said:
“2020 demonstrated the value of our diversified banking model, delivering resilient group results even in a difficult macroeconomic period, driven by the performance of our CIB.”
Barclays reports £7.61 billion of revenue from its markets segments
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Barclays said that it generated £7.61 billion of revenue from its markets segment that represents a 45% increase as compared to the previous year. Low economic activity, the British multinational said, as well as impairments in 2020 resulted in a £388 million of loss for its cards-and-payments unit.
According to the investment bank, in the last three months of 2020, it set aside £492 million to cover bad loans attributed to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis that has so far infected more than 4 million people in the United Kingdom and caused a little under 119 thousand deaths. In total, Barclays set aside £4.84 billion last year – an over 100% increase from 2019.
In separate news from the UK, Royal Dutch said late on Wednesday that it will divest its Kaybob Duvernay assets.
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Barclays announces plans of buying back £700 million of shares
Barclays also expressed confidence on Thursday that it will pay a dividend for the recently concluded year. It also announced plans of buying back shares worth up to £700 million. In an announcement in October, CEO Staley said that he will remain associated with the London-based bank for another couple of years.
Other prominent figures in Barclay’s financial update on Thursday include a 31% increase in income from equities and a 53% increase from fixed income, currencies and commodities segment. The financial services company also said that banking fees climbed by 8% in 2020.
Barclay shares opened roughly 2% down on Thursday and lost another 1.5% in the next hour. The stock is now trading at a per-share price of £1.49 after recovering from a low of 81 pence per share in April 2020.
Barclays performed fairly downbeat in the stock market last year with an annual decline of more than 25%. At the time of writing, it is valued at £26.26 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 13.27.
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