6th Mar 2020 18:29
(Alliance News) - Barclays PLC on Friday said Chair Nigel Higgins bought a total of 250,000 shares at an average of GBP1.3847 per share.
Higgins paid a total of GBP346,175‬ for shares over a series of transactions on Wednesday and his resultant holding in the bank was not disclosed.
Janet Ashley, close associate of Non-Executive Director Mike Ashley, bought 36,685 shares at GBP1.3629 each on Friday for GBP49,998. Like Higgins, her stake in Barclays after the deal was not disclosed.
Shares in Barclays closed down 3.4% at 130.07 pence in London on Friday.
On Monday this week, activist investor Edward Bramson once again took aim at the Barclays board, terming the bank's decision to renominate Chief Executive Jes Staley amid his ties to Jeffrey Epstein as "extremely ill-advised".
US financier Epstein killed himself in a New York jail in August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The Barclays board had previously unanimously recommended Staley for re-election at the bank's annual general meeting, having been judged to have been "sufficiently transparent" about the nature of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The Financial Times, however, has since reported the bank is preparing to launch the search for a new chief executive.
Sources told the newspaper that Staley could stand down at the company's annual meeting in May 2021.
Then, on Tuesday, London-based environmental activist group ShareAction said Barclays would be facing additional calls from shareholders at its annual general meeting in May to phase out its financing of fossil fuel firms that are not aligned with the Paris climate agreement.
Jupiter Asset Management has joined a group of 11 institutional investors in the bank, managing over GBP130 billion, alongside 100 individual shareholders, calling on Barclays to curb its financial provision of some fossil fuels, according to ShareAction.
Since the 2015 Paris Agreement was signed, Barclays has provided in excess of USD85 billion of funds to fossil fuel companies, making it one of their largest backers in sector globally, ShareAction claimed.
By Anna Farley; [email protected]
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