Barclays sees profits almost triple to £3.2bn

Barclays (LON:BARC) reported a sharp jump in pre-tax profits from £1.1 billion in 2015 to £3.2 billion in 2016, almost tripling profits.

The bank has undergone a huge restructuring process, which includes selling off of its Africa business.

Barclays has agreed to pay Barclays Africa 12.8 billion rand (£790m) to fund investments required to separate it from its African unit, Barclays Africa said.

“We are now just months away from completing the restructuring of Barclays, and I am more optimistic than ever for our prospects in 2017, and beyond,” Chief executive Jes Staley said.

Mr Staley has revealed plans to increase focus on the US and London. He also announced plans to add hundreds of staff to offices in Dublin, Frankfurt and Milan to counter Brexit the risks to its European branches.

“A year ago we laid out our intention to accelerate the restructuring of Barclays and refocus our business as a transatlantic, consumer, corporate and investment bank, anchored in London and New York,” Staley said in a statement. “We have made strong progress against this agenda in 2016.”

The news from Barclays has been received with mixed news from analysts. Peter Richardson at Berenberg described results as a “big miss” and pointed to the “disappointment” of “higher costs and impairments” at its corporate and investment bank.

But Berstein’s Chirantan Barua said the bank beat expectations in the fourth quarter with a strong rise in its core capital buffers and rapid investment banking growth.

Chief executive Staley has not commented on potential impacts from Brexit, but confirmed Barclays plans to keep headquarters in London.

In January he said: “I don’t believe that the financial centre of Europe will leave the city of London. There are all sorts of reasons why I think the UK will continue to be the financial lungs for Europe. The bulk of what we do will continue to occur in London in my view.”

Shares in the banking group opened up 2.4 percent at 241p on Thursday morning.