News Page for: BARCLAYS PLC, BARC (graph)

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1
26th April 2000

Ch4 Teletext:

Barclays said it would invest £500m in the next 4 years to improve customer service & revamp its branch network.

The bank will start offering basic services through post offices in affected areas this week. Will also improve range and quality of its products.

Announced an upbeat trading report for the first 3 months this year.
2
17th May 2000
 FT: Easyjet launched a £100k advertising campaign against Luton Airport and BARC (Luton Airport's main shareholder) to protest against rising landing fees. They are due to treble from Nov. BARC used its controlling stake in the airport to push for higher fees.  BARC denies everything [a sure sign they are guilty as hell-IRW]
3
23rd May 2000
 CH4 Teletext: Barclays is beefing up online services to customers thro' the internet and will invest £325m into e-commerce initiatives this year. It spent £180m in 1999. The bank's e-strategy [at least it's got one!-IRW] includes the launch of a retail financial Web Site, real-time dealing & online banking. Also developing a website for small businesses in a joint venture with Freeserve and b2b.com (a business to business web site).
4
13th June 2000
 RNS :Analyst briefings ahead of half year figures ending June 30th. In summary "All the Group's businesses had a strong performance for the first quarter of 2000." As at the close of business on 31st May 2000 for the year to date, Barclays has purchased for cancellation 15.4 million of its ordinary shares at a costof #238 million. Positive note .... the recent buyback of shares has been undertaken at prices in excess of the price we paid!! The 2000 interim results will be announced on Thursday 3rd August 2000
5
23rd June 2000

Ch4 Teletext: Barclays has completed the sale of its contract hire and fleet management business, Dial Group, to ABN AMRO who is paying £269m cash. The European Commission has given consent.

RNS news: Barclays PLC announced that on Thursday, June 22 it completed the sale of the Dial Group, a full service contract hire and fleet management business, to ABN AMRO Lease Holding N.V., the parent company of Lease Plan, for a purchase price of £269 million cash. Today's announcement follows clearance from the European Commission under the merger regulation, and consultation with Barclays' European Works Councils.

6
23rd June 2000

Market-Eye17:56:02 Barclays : 500,000 buy-back at 1570p.

Barclays has bought, on 23 June 2000, 500,000 of its ordinary shares at 1570.01p per ordinary share. ICV Edited News END (IPW) 17:56 Jun 23 2000

7
4th AUG 2000.
 BARCLAYS (£15.56, -59p) Announced 1st ½ results ahead of expectations, boosted by a 24% jump in retail division profits. Borrowing rose as did cross-selling of products with an average of 2.2 products for each customer and 2.7 for online clients. Improvements in delivery channels and customer products and services are paying off. The bank is on target of doubling economic profit in 4yrs. Operating income was up 13%. The bank has 1.25m internet banking customers with 420K log-ins a week. Profits were flat at £195m as increased costs and bad debt provisions offset a 12% increase in net income. Operating profit for ½yr to June 30th rose 24% excluding restructuring charges which fell from £345m to £106m. Pre-tax profit was up 90% to £1.84bn (£967m) boosted by an exceptional profit of £178m (-£119m) on the sale of the Dial car leasing business. Interim divi rose 14.3% to 20p. EPS is £0.889 (£0.462)
8
9th AUG 2000
 MARKET-EYE:09/08/2000 13:16:11 Town Centre Secs. : Holding in company Name of shareholder: Barclays Class of security: Ordinary Date company informed: 9 August 2000 Total holding: 2,687,389 (3.01%) ICV Edited News END (FM)
9
 9th AUG 2000 iii: Barclays could be with the Woolwich Mark Battersby, personal finance editor 09.08.00 So Barclays, the UK's fourth biggest high street bank, is in friendly takeover talks with the Woolwich. It immediately brings to mind the successful Lloyds TSB relationship with Cheltenham & Gloucester, the latter having provided a solid base of mortgage business for the group in recent years. If Barclays' image can be upgraded to that of the Woolwich, which has retained the rosy glow of a former building society rather more than, for example, the Abbey National, then so much the better. But the trend towards ever expanding financial organisations brings with it a number of concerns that need to be handled sensitively. More branch closures, an area that Barclays handled badly recently, is undoubtedly on the cards if the merger goes ahead. The government's decision not to clamp down on bank mergers sits uncomfortably alongside Don Cruickshank's stance that more consolidation among current account providers would accentuate an already weak competitive market in this area. Not only that, the people running these monolithic companies must have an impressive range of skills in order to do a good job and even the best are faced with huge demands. It seems that both brands will be retained but in the fullness of time products from both companies will be offered to all the customers. The Woolwich has built a better reputation for providing good value, innovative financial products than Barclays, which has held on bad old ways for too long and showed an unsure touch with new ventures such as B2. Until comparatively recently, for example, Barclays offered a personal pension with nasty upfront charges that compared very unfavourably with the competition. That has now changed and Barclays now has one of the most competitive pension products but it has arrived rather late in the day for some people. The official statement says, "The incorporation of Woolwich's brand, management, products and capabilities within the Barclays group would accelerate the achievement of Barclays' strategic ambitions - particularly in personal financial services." [they'll have more branches to close now-IRW]
10
12th AUG 2000
 FT: BARC secured backing from the board of Woolwich for a £5.3bn takeover that will see 100 branches shut [ce qu'un suprise!-IRW] and 1000 jobs axed. Most of the Woolwich execs team will not be amongst those 1000 [need I say anything?-IRW] but take heart, just to avoid being attacked by customers, they will only close these branches one at a time so no one notices. Analysts [also not amongst the 1000-IRW] welcomed the deal.
11
14th Oct 2000
 FT: BANKS SECTOR Threat of price war. Halifax is paying 4% on current accounts that receive deposits of at least £1000/month.
12
20 DEC 2000
 20/12/00 07:41 GMT FI Group, Barclays in 25 mln stg 3-yr IT deal LONDON (AFX) - FI Group PLC said it has signed a three-year agreement with Barclays PLC valued at 25 mln stg. Under this agreement, FI will continue to provide integrated IT services to all parts of the Barclays Group. FI said its prime focus is to deliver productivity and performance improvements for the bank. Barclays and FI will also work together in the delivery of Live Systems Support across the bank. The agreement enables future access to FI's range of e-managed services, and to FI's customer relationship management capability.