The shareholders of Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) authorized a share repurchase at its Annual General Meeting on April 25, 2013. Under the program, the company will repurchase up to 1,286,066,272 ordinary shares, representing 10% of the issued share capital. The minimum price (exclusive of expenses) which may be paid for each ordinary share is not less than 25p and the maximum price (exclusive of expenses) which may be paid for each ordinary share shall not be more than the ... higher of 105% of the average of the market values of the ordinary shares (as derived from the Daily Official List of the London Stock Exchange) for the five business days immediately preceding the date on which the purchase is made and that stipulated by Article 5(1) of the Buy-back and Stabilization Regulation (EC 2273/2003). Under the Act, the company may hold any shares bought back in treasury, which may then either be sold for cash, transferred for the purposes of an employees’ share scheme (subject, if necessary, to approval by shareholders at a General Meeting) or cancelled. The company therefore has the choice of either cancelling or holding in treasury any of its shares which it purchases. Unless previously renewed, varied or revoked by the Company in General Meeting, the authority conferred by this resolution shall expire at the end of the AGM of the Company to be held in 2014 or on June 30, 2014, whichever is earlier. As of April 25, 2013, the company has 12,863,926,728 shares in issue.
Read More

Barclays Bank PLC announced that it will receive £743.70 million in core tier 1 equity capital on February 13, 2013. The transaction will include participation from existing investor Barclays PLC.

Deutsche Bank AG (DB:DBK), The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (LSE:RBS), Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC), Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE:C), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), Nomura Holdings, Inc. (TSE:8604) and Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (all referred as investors) acquired 12% stake in Traiana Inc. from ICAP plc (LSE:IAP) for $36 million on January 14, 2013. Collectively, the investors also have an opportunity under certain conditions to acquire in the future an additional 20% equity ... in Traiana for a price of up to $82.5 million. As part of the agreement, Traiana created a new Board of Directors, led by Traiana Founder and Executive Chairman, Gil Mandelzis. The Board of Directors includes Traiana's Chief Executive Officer, Andy Coyne, and a representative from each of the investing banks. ICAP will continue to consolidate Traiana as a subsidiary. For the six month period ending September 30, 2012 Traiana had revenues of £20 million ($32.25 million). Evercore Partners Inc. acted as financial advisor for Traiana Inc. and ICAP plc. The conversions are done through OANDA.com as of January 14, 2013.
Read More

Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC), The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) and TPG Capital, L.P. agreed to acquire a majority stake in Kew Green Holdings Limited on December 13, 2012. The deal is subject to European Commission’s approval.

Banco Santander, S.A., Investment Arm, BBVA Investment Arm, Banco de Sabadell, S.A., Investment Arm and Popular Gestión, S.A., S.G.I.I.C. made an offer to acquire 4.41% stake in Metrovacesa, S.A. (CATS:MVC) for €92.6 million on December 19, 2012. As per the terms of the deal, the buyers are offering €2.28 per share. Banco Santander will acquire 2.095% stake in Metrovacesa, S.A. In a related transaction, Banco Santander, S.A., Investment Arm entered into an agreement ... to acquire 12.267% stake in Metrovacesa on December 19, 2012. The transaction is subject to the approval of the delisting and the corresponding tender offer at the general meeting of shareholders of Metrovacesa, S.A. As of April 18, 2013, the deal was authorized by Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores, CNMV. As of April 22, 2013, Metrovacesa has delayed the deadline for the acceptance of its takeover bid beginning on April 22, 2013 to May 13, 2013. Hogan Lovells acted as legal advisor for Metrovacesa. Fernando Azofra, Javier Redonet, Alejandro Fernández de Oliveira, Jaime Tarrero and Fernando Ramos of Uría Menéndez Abogados, S.L.P. acted as legal advisor for Banco Santander. Banco Santander, S.A. acted as financial advisor for the investor group.
Read More

Sociedad de Gestión de Activos Procedentes de la Reestructuración Bancaria, S.A. announced that it will raise funding from Banco Santander, S.A., Banco Popular Espanol S.A., Sabadell Capital, Fund for Ordered Bank Restructuring, CaixaBank, S.A., and Kutxabank S.A on December 12, 2012. On the same day, the company announced that it has received €884 million in an equity round of funding from new investors. The company received €57 million in funding from Banco Popular ... Espanol S.A., Sabadell Capital invested €66 million, CaixaBank, S.A. invested €118 million, Kutxabank S.A invested €25 million, Banco Santander, S.A. invested €164 million, and Fund for Ordered Bank Restructuring invested €397 million in the transaction. Belén Romana García and and Walter Luis de Luna from Fund for Ordered Bank Restructuring will join the board of directors of the company along with several others. Fund for Ordered Bank Restructuring will appoint four directors in total. Santander Investment Banking acted as the financial advisor to Banco Santander, S.A. On December 13, 2012, the company announced that it will raise an additional €2,862.2 million in this round of funding. The company will issue 28,622 not guaranteed contingently convertible subordinate notes of €0.1 million each at 100% value of the notes, convertible into ordinary shares of the company. The transaction was approved at the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of the company. The convertible subordinate notes are freely transferrable and will be represented by book-entry method and will be registered in the corresponding accounting records under Sociedad de Gestión de los Sistemas de Registro, Compensación y Liquidación de Valores, Sociedad Anónima Unipersonal and its authorized participant institutions. The convertible subordinate notes will all belong to a single series, all of them having the same terms and conditions and allocating, therefore, identical rights to its holders. The subscription period will extend from December 28, 2012 up to December 31, 2012, and the payment date being December 31, 2012. The notes will amortize till November 27, 2027. The subordinated debt will be subscribed by investors Banco Santander, S.A., Banco Popular Espanol S.A., Fondo de Reestructuracion Ordenada Bancaria (FROB), Kutxabank S.A., CaixaBank, S.A., Sabadell Capital, and other investors in proportion to their equity holdings. On December 18, 2012, the company closed the third and final tranche of the equity part of the transaction. The company has raised a total of €1,361 million from 19 investors, consisting of national and international banks and insurance companies, including additional €524 million in funding from eight Spanish banks and three Spanish insurers that are new investors Grupo Catalana Occidente SA, Investment Arm, Mutua Madrileña Inmobiliaria, Mapfre Inversión Dos S.A. SGIIC and new investors Deutsche Bank AG, Barclays PLC, and AXA Group. Fund for Orderly bank restructuring would also invest €431 million in the company in future. Banco Santander, S.A., now owns 17.8%, Banco Popular Espanol S.A. owns 6.2%, Fondo de Reestructuracion Ordenada Bancaria (FROB) owns 43.1%, Kutxabank S.A. owns 2.7%, CaixaBank, S.A. owns 12.8%, and Sabadell Capital owns 7.2% among others pursuant to the transaction. Alvarez & Marsal, LLC, Goldman Sachs Gestión SGIIC, S.A., Citibank Espana S.A., Barclays PLC, Nomura Holdings, Inc., and N+1 Corporate Finance served as the financial advisors to Fund for Ordered Bank Restructuring. Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira, S.L.P. served as the legal advisor to Fund for Ordered Bank Restructuring. Uría Menéndez Abogados, S.L.P. served as the legal advisor to Banco Santander, S.A., CaixaBank, S.A., and Banco Popular Espanol S.A. with a team led by Francisco San Miguel, Fernando Azofra, Ramiro Rivera, and Juan Miguel Goenechea. KPMG Asesores S.L., Corporate Finance served as the financial advisor to the company on the part of the convertible bonds.
Read More

Absa Group Limited (JSE:ASA) agreed to acquire Barclays Bank Plc (Mauritius), Barclays Bank Zambia Plc, Barclays Bank of Uganda Limited, Barclays Bank Tanzania Limited, 99.8% stake in Barclays Bank (Seychelles) Ltd., Barclays Bank of Ghana Ltd., 67.8% stake in Barclays Bank of Botswana Limited and 68.5% stake in Barclays Bank Of Kenya Limited from Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) for ZAR 18.4 billion on December 6, 2012. As part of consideration, Absa Group Limited shall issue ... 129.54 million shares to Barclays PLC. On completion of the acquisition, Barclays PLC shall hold 62.3% in Absa Group Limited and Absa Group Limited will be renamed as Barclays Africa Group Limited and the composition of the Board of Absa Group will be reconstituted accordingly. The transaction comprises Barclays ownership interests in banking operations in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, as well as the Barclays Africa Regional Office in Johannesburg. Absa will continue to own 100% of Absa Bank Limited, 95.8% of Barclays Bank of Mozambique and 55% of the National Bank of Commerce in Tanzania. The proposed transaction excludes Barclay’s operations in Egypt and Zimbabwe. The deal subject to regulatory approval, approval from the Absa shareholders excluding Barclays in the general meeting to be held on February 25, 2013. and is expected to complete in the first half of 2013. The independent Directors of the Absa Board have unanimously approved the transaction and a fairness opinion has been provided. As of February 25, 2013 Absa Group minority shareholders approved the acquisition and also approved the name change of Absa Group Limited to 'Barclays Africa Group Limited' to reflect the enlarged nature of the business. The name change would take effect post transaction completion. As of April 9, 2013, Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan approved the transaction. The deal is still subject to approval of Competition Commission. John Brennan of Goldman Sachs International acted as financial advisor to Barclays PLC. Andrew Jones, Patrick Sheil, Sandeep Katwala, Tracey Lochhead and Charlie Jacobs of Linklaters LLP and Sarah Adcock, Ziyanda Ntshona and Christo Els of Webber Wentzel acted as legal advisors for Absa Group Limited. Alan Bainbridge, Emma de Ronde, Kevin Cron, Ed Brogan, Anne Ledingham, Lance Jones, Kendra MacDonald, Vic Kandampully, TJ Zhang, Zano Nduli, Martin Scott, Charles Ancer, Dominic Stuttaford, Andrew James, Andrew Wellsted, Ross Robertson, Jonathan Ball, Catrina Smith, Charlotte Winter and Bridget King of Norton Rose LLP and Patrick Sarch, Narind Singh, Christopher Bates of Clifford Chance acted as legal advisors for Barclays PLC. Absa Bank Limited, JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, Johannesburg Branch and Deutsche Securities (SA) Proprietary Limited acted as financial advisors and KPMG LLP and Ernst & Young acted as accountants to Absa.
Read More

Sponsored Financial Commentaries

To contact BARCLAYS PLC-SPONS ADR, please visit . Company data is provided by Capital IQ. Please use this form to report any data issues.

Our data partners will research the update request and update the information on this page if necessary. Research and follow-up could take several weeks. If you have questions, you can contact them at bwwebmaster@businessweek.com.