9 May 2024
Barclays PLC
AGM Statements
Chairman's
2024 AGM statement
Welcome to Glasgow and to Barclays' first AGM
in Scotland, and our second outside London.
We deliberately try to hold our AGM outside of
London every few years, particularly in locations where we have
large numbers of colleagues, to ensure wide and diverse
engagement.
Glasgow occupies a special place in the
Barclays Group - we currently employ over 6,000 colleagues at our
nearby state-of-the art campus, and look forward to welcoming still
more colleagues to Barclays with our announced acquisition of Tesco
Bank, based in Scotland.
This year we are again holding the AGM as a
hybrid meeting. Whether you are here in person, or joining
electronically, the AGM provides a useful opportunity for
engagement, and in that spirit we hope for a constructive dialogue
today.
As we gather, the global background continues
to be unpredictable. 2023 was marked by macroeconomic and
geopolitical instability, affecting our customers, clients and
communities in disparate ways.
This backdrop increased the premium for banks'
stability and reliability. Our stable franchise enabled us to
remain resilient, and to continue to support all our
stakeholders.
Our progress is shown in our 2023 financial
performance. We delivered an underlying Return on Tangible Equity
of 10.6%, enabling capital distributions of c£3.0bn. This means
that since 2019 we have returned c.£9bn in dividends and buybacks
to our shareholders, representing a share count reduction of
13%.
You will know from our Investor Update, which
took place alongside our financial results in February, that
Barclays has been on a journey to a more sustainable and
satisfactory performance. We recognise there is more to do to
further improve our returns and valuation.
Venkat will be speaking shortly and will
briefly recap our three-year plan to deliver higher returns, but
the important point here is that the Board and the management team
are now very focused on execution.
As we move through 2024, we must deliver
against our objectives and demonstrate to you, our shareholders,
that we can improve our operational and financial performance and
deliver more value.
If we deliver against our plan, the improvement
in our performance should be recognised by the market and our share
price should upgrade accordingly. Venkat will talk more about the
positive momentum in 2024 to date.
A key part of this will be our continued
endeavour to achieve a standard of consistent excellence in all
that Barclays does. By the end of the year dedicated consistently
excellent training will have been rolled out to all Barclays
colleagues. Only by demonstrating ongoing operational rigour can we
continue to instil confidence and credibility in our
plan.
As we execute against our strategy we will
continue to draw closely on our Purpose. We recently redefined our
Purpose to 'working together for a better financial future'. This
expresses how we work across Barclays to lift up our customers,
clients and communities, helping them achieve their
aspirations.
It is particularly fitting to update you on our
Climate Strategy as we hold the AGM here in Glasgow, which is the
home of our flagship site for sustainability. Not only are all of
the Glasgow campus buildings powered by renewable energy, it will
also be the first of our sites to achieve zero waste by
2025.
Climate change is a critical and complex
challenge, and addressing it is a priority for Barclays. We are
supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy in three key
ways.
First, we are doing a significant amount to
finance the transition. We have a $1 trillion target of green,
sustainable and transition finance by 2030, and are using our
capital and expertise to power clean infrastructure projects across
the world, and to scale-up innovative climate
technologies.
The second positive thing we are doing is
focusing our capital and resources on diversified energy companies
actively engaged in the transition. The IEA's net zero assessment
shows fossil fuels are necessary to meet short-term demand, and so
we are taking a balanced and thoughtful approach to securing a
future energy system that is clean, reliable and affordable. Our
newly established Energy Transition Group is dedicated to
supporting our clients navigate this change, and in 2023 we
reviewed transition plans for over 1250 clients in high-emitting
sectors.
Third, we are making progress on delivering our
climate strategy, which is helping reduce our operational and
financed emissions. We have a number of science-based policies and
targets, which we review regularly, including our recent
announcement to stop project finance or direct finance to energy
clients for new upstream oil and gas projects.
That our financed emissions from upstream
energy (coal, oil and gas extraction and production) fell by 44%
between 2020 and the end of 2023, is testimony to the impact of our
policies and targets to how we allocate our capital.
I will close by thanking all of my Barclays
colleagues for their contributions this last year. Among those
colleagues I am pleased to welcome Sir John Kingman who joined the
Board in June 2023 as a Non-Executive Director, and Chair of
Barclays UK. His appointment is proposed to this AGM. Sir John has
a deep background in financial services, and we welcome the wealth
of experience he can bring to the organisation.
Thank you for listening. I will now hand over
to Venkat.
Chief
Executive's 2024 AGM statement
Thank you, Nigel, and a warm welcome to all of
our shareholders.
Our ambition for Barclays is to be the
UK-centred leader in global finance. Our UK businesses are the
heart of our franchise. They include our UK consumer bank, Barclays
UK, our UK Corporate bank and our Private Bank and Wealth
Management business.
These businesses constitute a complete banking
presence in our UK home market. They enable our customers and
clients to manage their finances, borrow to buy their homes, build
their businesses, and achieve their aspirations.
Barclays Investment Bank provides UK and
international corporations and investors with access to global
capital. It is the leading markets and banking business
headquartered outside the United States, has deep client
relationships and operates with sophistication and expertise across
international financial markets.
And in the US, we have built a partnership
credit card business, serving the 20 million customers of 20 large
blue-chip corporate clients.
We are a diversified bank, and there are
important synergies between our businesses that contribute to our
sustainable success.
Alongside our multinational footprint, we have
remained a well-capitalised institution, with a CET1 capital ratio
at 13.8% in 2023, close to the top of our range of 13-14%, and we
are very liquid.
And since 2021, we have delivered consistent
underlying returns above 10%1, in changing operating
environments.
(1
FY 2023 RoTE
excludes Q423 structural cost actions.)
Our financial performance in 2023 demonstrates
these strong foundations. We delivered a Return on Tangible Equity
of 10.6%, profit before tax of £6.6bn, and Earnings per share of
32.4p, excluding the structural cost actions which we took in
2023.
I want to use the opportunity today however to
focus on the direction we are taking going forward.
At our Investor Update in February 2024, I
outlined my ambition for Barclays to be a strongly returning,
highly valued bank, centred in the UK, and producing higher
shareholder returns.
We detailed a three-year plan to improve our
performance and deliver further value for our shareholders. Our
plan has three important goals. First, to grow our returns, with a
target to deliver a greater than 12% RoTE by 2026.
Second, to return at least £10bn of
capital2, via buybacks and dividends, to our
shareholders, again between now and 2026. For context, that number
in 2023 was £3bn.
(2 This multiyear plan is
subject to Supervisory and Board approval, anticipated financial
performance and our published CET1 ratio target range of
13-14%.)
Third is to rebalance the bank, reducing the
proportion of Risk Weighted Assets allocated to the Investment Bank
to 50% over the next three years. We will also invest around £30bn
of Risk Weighted Assets in our higher-returning UK consumer
businesses.
Nigel touched on the number and scale of
unexpected events in the global economy through 2023. This more
uncertain market and political environment has important
implications for a global institution like Barclays, and for our
customers and clients.
Importantly, we have remained committed to
doing all the things we should be doing to serve our clients and
communities and to enable their better financial future.
In this increasingly polarised world, our home
in the UK is a pillar of strength. The UK has been Barclays' home
for 330 years. London is a leading global financial centre and
notably, in an election year, there is comparative harmony between
both major political parties, particularly with regards to their
respective approaches to investment and growth. Hence today, more
than ever, we believe that the UK is an ideal place in which to do
business and from which to do business.
Few places illustrate the strength of our
commitment to the UK better than Glasgow. We have increased the
number of jobs in Glasgow by over 90% in the last four years, and
are proud of our world class campus here.
Your management team has spent the last few
months engaging with investors on our three-year plan. I am pleased
to report that these conversations have gone very well.
Our share price is up around 40% since the
start of 2024 and this is early evidence that our plan for Barclays
is earning support.
But explaining our plan is only the first step
in our three-year journey. The next steps are all about disciplined
execution. Quarter after quarter we need to demonstrate that we are
focused on and committed to our plan and the goals of growth,
capital return and rebalancing the business.
We are half way into the second quarter of
2024, and I am pleased with how we are executing our plan across
the bank. Our RoTE for the first quarter was 12.3%, in line with
the targets which we set out.
Let me share some divisional highlights to
bring our disciplined focus to life.
We announced the acquisition of Tesco Bank's
retail banking business also based here, in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
We expect it to complete in the fourth quarter of this year. This
strategic partnership with the UK's largest retailer will help
accelerate our planned growth in unsecured lending here in our UK
home market.
We also want to build on the strength of our UK
Corporate Bank, which has relationships with 25% of UK corporates.
We are at a very early stage of our plan, but our pipeline is
looking up since the start of this year, in line with our goal to
expand our share in lending.
In Private Bank & Wealth Management we
recently announced new simplified pricing for our Smart Investor
Product to make it more competitive and position us for future
growth.
In March, the US Corporate Bank launched the
first-ever consumer credit card for Breeze Airways, a new and
fast-growing airline in the US. This further extended our reach in
the world's largest credit card market.
In the Investment Bank, we are at the start of
a journey to improving our performance. While there is a long road
ahead, I am pleased with pockets of early success, including our
recently established Energy Transition Group which has announced
nine M&A transactions since late December. This shows their
active advisory role in one of our focus sectors.
To support our journey to higher returns, we
must also operate our bank, and each of our businesses, extremely
well. I have spoken before about managing the bank in a
consistently excellent way, this continues to be a critically
important endeavour to achieve our plan.
So, you will have hopefully got the impression
that we are relentlessly focused on executing our strategy to
deliver enhanced shareholder value. The pathway to delivering
higher, sustainable returns will be long, but we are patient and
committed to achieving the targets which we have set
out.
Finally, the foundation of our success rests
with our people. I am grateful to all our colleagues for their
continued and ongoing dedication to serving our customers, and
driving our success. Equally, I thank you, our shareholders, for
your trust and faith in the company and our operational and
financial strategy.
Thank you.
- ENDS -
For further information, please
contact:
Investor Relations
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Media Relations
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Marina Shchukina
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Jonathan Tracey
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+44 (0) 20 7116 2526
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+44 (0)20 7116 4755
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About
Barclays
Our vision is to be the UK-centred leader in
global finance. We are a diversified bank with comprehensive
UK consumer, corporate and wealth and private banking franchises, a
leading investment bank and a strong, specialist US consumer
bank. Through these five divisions, we are working together
for a better financial future for our customers, clients and
communities.
For further information about
Barclays, please visit our website home.barclays.
Forward-looking statements
This announcement contains
forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the
US Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of
the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended, with respect to the
Barclays Group. Barclays cautions readers that no forward-looking
statement is a guarantee of future performance and that actual
results or other financial condition or performance measures could
differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the
fact that they do not relate only to historical or current facts.
Forward-looking statements sometimes use words such as 'may',
'will', 'seek', 'continue', 'aim', 'anticipate', 'target',
'projected', 'expect', 'estimate', 'intend', 'plan', 'goal',
'believe', 'achieve' or other words of similar meaning.
Forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs and
expectations of Barclays' directors, officers and employees and are
subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual outcomes may
differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking
statements. Factors that could impact the Barclays Group's future
financial condition and performance are identified in Barclays
PLC's filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission
("SEC") (including, without
limitation, Barclays PLC's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the
fiscal year ended 31 December 2023, which is available on the SEC's
website at www.sec.gov). Subject to Barclays' obligations under the
applicable laws and regulations of any relevant jurisdiction
(including, without limitation, the UK and the US), in relation to
disclosure and ongoing information, Barclays undertakes no
obligation to update publicly or revise any forward looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events
or otherwise.