Barclays shareholders 'mad as hell'

published 21 November 2008

Has the Chancellor finally learned how to talk tough to the bankers? The Treasury has warned fractious shareholders in Britain's banks that a public bailout will be far more costly if they act on threats to block any of the lenders' planned fundraisings, said The Daily Telegraph's Philip Aldrick. Yet Barclays' shareholders are still carping over the lender's proposed £7bn Middle East-backed tin rattle ahead of Monday's vote on the issue.

Shareholders "are as mad as hell", said David Wighton in The Times. They're angry that they weren't consulted before Barclays raised expensive new Gulf capital; that Barclays has ridden roughshod over the cherished principle that existing shareholders should get "first dibs" in a fundraising; and that Barclays appeared to ignore the option of raising cheaper money from the Government.

Barclays has offered shareholders a small slice of the debt securities originally reserved for the Middle East, while the executive directors will forego bonuses this year and the entire board will put itself up for re-election in April. All this amounts to little, however; as Lex said in the FT, "if the circumstances weren't so dire", especially now that Darling has cut shareholders "off at the knees", the board would lose Monday's vote. The Independent's David Prosser agreed: "It's going to take some pretty impressive bridge-building to get past this row".