Barclays must wait for decision on possibility of criminal prosecution
RETAILER HALFORDS has posted a 10.5 per cent fall in annual profits as it took a hit from the weak pound and saw the timing of Easter knock recent sales.
The car parts-to-bicycles chain reported pre-tax profits of £71.4m for the year to March 31, down from £79.8m a year earlier, as the pound’s plunge since the Brexit vote sent the costs of imported goods surging by £14m.
It also revealed a 1.2 per cent drop in like-for-like retail sales in the final three months due to the later timing of Easter this year.
But the group said retail sales were 3.9 per cent higher on a more comparative basis for the 15 weeks to April 28. Outgoing chief executive Jill McDonald – who is leaving in October to head up Marks & Spencer’s clothing, home and beauty business – said: “Profit performance for the year was impacted by the weaker pound, but our plans are well developed and I am confident this will be offset over time.” BRITAIN’S SERIOUS Fraud Office said yesterday that Barclays and its former senior bankers will not know until around mid-June whether they face criminal charges over a 2008 emergency fundraising from Qatar.
The SFO has already delayed a charging decision from the end of March to the end of May in the only UK criminal investigation from the financial crisis period in which senior bankers face possible criminal charges.
The SFO’s investigation centres on commercial agreements between Barclays and Qatari investors as part of a £12bn fundraising at the height of the credit crisis, which allowed the bank to avoid a state bailout.
Barclays did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but the bank has previously denied any wrongdoing.
The inquiry is one of several legal issues inherited by Barclays’s current Chief Executive Jes Staley that date back to the credit crisis.
The bank already faces a proposed fine of around £50m for being “reckless” after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it did not disclose all “advisory services agreements” to Qatar, although that inquiry is ongoing.
The bank is also being sued for $1bn in damages by Amanda Staveley, a British businesswoman with Gulf connections, over whether all Gulf investors received the same terms in 2008, a case Barclays has called “misconceived”.
Simultaneously it is contesting a high-profile unfair dismissal for a whistleblowing case.
One of the bank’s former most senior investment bankers Richard Boath, who cooperated with the SFO in its investigation, alleges he was fired “as a direct result” of what he told investigators when questioned as part of their criminal inquiry.
The case has been adjourned to later in the year.
The Qatar investigation is also highly-charged politically ahead of the General Election on June 8. Qatari investors have not been accused of any wrongdoing. But the Gulf state is a key investor in Britain as the country prepares to extricate itself from the European Union.
Britain’s ruling Conservative Party has also pledged to scrap the SFO and roll it into a broader crime-fighting body if it wins the election.