Friday preview: BarCap and bonuses in focus (as usual) at Barclays

The waiving of executive bonuses has suddenly become fashionable but no one is holding their breath for Bob Diamond, Chief Executive Officer of Barclays, to announce he is forgoing his bonus when the bank announces its fourth quarter results on Friday.

In terms of the boss's full-year remuneration, newspaper reports suggest the Diamond geyser could spout beyond £11m with the approval of a £2.5m bonus. It is not certain that details of the bonus pool will be announced with the results but if they are, they will almost certainly dominate coverage of the figures on the front pages of the UK press, and may even feature prominently on the City pages.

As for the profit and loss numbers, expectations are that the full year profit before tax will be £6.11bn on revenue of £30.27bn. The dividend is expected to be hiked to a full year pay-out of 5.92p from 2010's 5.50p.

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Credit Suisse is more interested in what is happening at Barclays Capital (BarCap), the investment banking unit that used to be headed by Diamond.

"So far the group has announced limited restructuring [at BarCap] compared to peers, with revenue guidance well above market expectations (at £1.8bn-£2.4bn increase by fiscal 2013)," Credit Suisse says.

"Whilst the group could benefit from some of the deleveraging at RBS we will be looking to see if there is any change to guidance. We will be particularly interested in any outlook comment regarding 2012E [fiscal 2012] including the performance in January where trends have been mixed," the Swiss bank said.

"Furthermore we will look for any additional colour on the potential impact of ring fencing. Similar to other IBs [investment banks] we don't expect the Q4 [fourth quarter] result to be a major driver of the share price performance," Credit Suisse added.

The Swiss bank will also be on the look-out for progress in reducing credit market exposures from £16.6bn at the third quarter stage of last year, and will be focusing on progress in terms of Eurozone exposure.

INTERIMS

Eurocommercial Properties NV

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

ICAP, Umeco

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balance of Trade (US) (13:30)

Consumer Price Index (GER) (07:00)

Treasury Budget Statement (US) (19:00)

U. of Michigan Confidence (Prelim) (US) (15:00)

FINALS

Barclays, Proventec, Zenergy Power

IMSS

Cable & Wireless Communications, Flybe Group, Shaftesbury

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Juridica Investments Ltd.

AGMS

GCP Infrastructure Investments Ltd., Shaftesbury

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Producer Price Indices (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Britvic, Daily Mail and General Trust, Daily Mail and General Trust 'Ord' Shares, Grainger, JPMorgan Asian Inv Trust, NB Global Floating Rate Income Fund Ltd Red C shs $, NB Global Floating Rate Income Fund Ltd Red C shs £, Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust