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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Barclays profit slumps by a third | Barclays profit slumps by a third |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| Barclays has reported a 33% drop in pre-tax profits for the first half of 2008 - as it reported more writedowns linked to the credit crunch. | Barclays has reported a 33% drop in pre-tax profits for the first half of 2008 - as it reported more writedowns linked to the credit crunch. |
| The bank made £2.75bn profit - down from £4.1bn - a decline it described as "acutely disappointing". | The bank made £2.75bn profit - down from £4.1bn - a decline it described as "acutely disappointing". |
| It took charges of £2.45bn for bad debt and other provisions, including £1.1bn from exposure to US sub-prime mortgages and other credit market problems. | |
| Barclays recently raised £4.5bn from investors to boost its balance sheet. | |
| The bulk of shares were sold to major overseas and institutional investors, led by Qatar, China and Singapore. | The bulk of shares were sold to major overseas and institutional investors, led by Qatar, China and Singapore. |
| And earlier this week Barclays agreed to sell its life assurance arm to Swiss Re for £753m as part of its capital raising efforts. | |
| 'Tough' conditions | |
| Barclays said the outlook would remain difficult. | |
| "It would be wrong... to suggest that the market conditions over the foreseeable future will be anything other than tough," said chief executive John Varley - pointing to slowing economies around the world. | |
| "That means that we must remain very vigilant to managing risk." | |
| He added that some parts of the business "may take quite some time" to return to the profitability of previous years. | |
| The £2.54bn of charges in the first six months of 2008 compared with £959m of writedowns in the same period a year ago and £1.84bn in the final six months of 2007. |