LONDON – Barclays reported a revenue hike of 16% in the first three months of 2017, doubling pre-tax profits.
Revenue rose to £5.8 billion from £5 billion a year earlier.
Pre-tax profit soared to £1.6 billion from £793 million. The bank took a £658 million hit on the disposal of its Africa operations which halved the bank’s “attributable profit” from £433 million to £190 million
“This has been another quarter of strong progress towards the completion of the restructuring of Barclays,” CEO Jes Staley said in a statement on Friday.
“Group profit before tax more than doubled compared to Q1 of 2016, and our Core businesses continued to perform very well, producing a combined Return on Tangible Equity of 11%, on an average tangible equity base that is £5bn higher year-on-year. Within that, Barclays UK’s and Barclays International’s RoTEs both improved to 21.6% and 12.5% respectively.”
Staley will likely be subject to shareholders' ire over a whistleblowing scandal after he tried to identify the writer of two anonymous letters about a senior executive.
Both he and Barclays are the subject of investigations by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority over the affair, which is being treated as a whistleblowing incident.
The board issued a "formal written reprimand" to Staley and will make "a very significant compensation adjustment" to his bonus.
