Metropolis veteran Mike Turner who ran BAE Programs and chaired GKN is resigning as a Barclays director, as a part of a boardroom clear-out designed to move off stress from activist investor Edward Bramson.
The announcement of Mr Turner’s departure signifies that 5 of the financial institution’s administrators — together with chairman John McFarlane — have both stepped down or will depart at its annual assembly in Could.
The departures come as incoming chairman Nigel Higgins, a long-serving Rothschild banker, prepares to make his mark at a time when Mr Bramson is making an attempt to pressure his method on to the board.
Mr Bramson, Barclays’ fourth-largest investor with a 5.5 per cent stake, hopes to win sufficient votes on the annual assembly to safe a directorship, which he plans to make use of to pressure the financial institution to carry out a strategic U-turn and shrink its funding financial institution.
He has described the division as a “black field with an excessive amount of leverage” and desires Barclays to scale back its buying and selling operations and concentrate on its retail enterprise, in impact dismantling the UK’s final remaining world funding financial institution.
In current weeks, Mr Higgins has been assembly giant buyers and has promised to reform the board with out Mr Bramson’s help, in keeping with a number of folks briefed on the discussions.
One individual aware of Mr Higgins’ plan stated he desires to make the 15-person board smaller and appoint administrators with extra experience in banking.
Economist Dambisa Moyo and Reuben Jeffery, a former Goldman Sachs banker, will even not search re-election on the annual assembly, whereas Gerry Grimstone stepped down final month.
Mr Turner, who ran BAE Programs between 2002 and 2008, had been seen as a possible future chairman of Barclays, though buyers stated his lack of banking expertise counted in opposition to him. Mr Grimstone had additionally been seen as a attainable successor to Mr McFarlane till he dominated himself out.
“On behalf of the board, I want to categorical my gratitude to Reuben, Dambisa and Mike for his or her service and dedication to Barclays,” stated Mr McFarlane.
He added: “It isn’t at all times a straightforward determination to be on a significant financial institution board, significantly over a troublesome interval for the sector, and I’m grateful to all of them for enterprise this with such dedication.”
The Barclays boardroom clear-out comes because the financial institution strikes to fend off Mr Bramson, who’s struggling to win backing from different giant buyers.
His plans had been dealt a blow final month when Aviva, which has backed Mr Bramson’s activism at different UK firms, stated it will vote in opposition to him on the annual assembly.
A number of giant buyers stated they had been sad that Mr Bramson had amassed the vast majority of his Barclays stake with a $1.4bn mortgage from Financial institution of America, arguing that his highly-leveraged place meant he was not aligned with different huge shareholders.
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