Barclays To Let Private Equity Business Leave The Nest

News from efinancialnews this morning that Barclays are continuing to whittle themselves down to their core businesses – they’re planning to spin off Barclays Private Equity from the firm and let it fly solo.

The firm, which raises rounds of funding to be invested in buy-outs, has been investing less and less of Barclays’ money in the funds over the years – after committing half the total of the first round of funding, it only contributed €650m towards the €2.4bn total raised by the third, most recent round. Now, as they continue with the selloff of their iShares ETF-trading business, it looks like the bank has been chastened somewhat by the events of the last few months. They may have been able to avoid signing up to the government’s asset insurance scheme, but now they’ve got to tread very carefully with their capital ratio, especially as they’re preparing to commit to billions in new consumer lending - funding buyouts is clearly something they could only afford in the boom times.

Meanwhile the tax avoidance beef continues, with a report today by – surprise surprise – the Guardian saying that a whistleblower who queried the bank’s practices was sacked for his peskiness; Barclays are predictably denying any wrongdoing.

Posted by Ben Beaumont-Thomas in Hot Money | April 6, 2009 12:22PM |