Directors’ Deals: Head of Barclays’ investment bank sells stake
Barclays Bank has been mostly notable over the past few years for the number of scandals and administrative mishaps that have plagued the bank and its long-suffering shareholders. Against that difficult background the investment bank has managed to hold its own during the worst of the markets this year as its trading arm made full use of volatility to underpin the bank’s £2bn reported profit at the recent third-quarter results.
On the basis that performance, it comes as no surprise that Paul Compton, head of Barclays’ global investment bank, used the end of the lock-in period after the results to sell a sizeable chunk of Barclays shares. According to the release, he sold 1.1mn shares at an average price of 148p, to generate £1.6mn. Whether this is a simple share sale, or the vesting of bonus options was not stated, and Barclays did not return calls for comment. But the transaction was conducted by Solium Capital UK Limited in its capacity as administrator of the Barclays’ nominee service.
Compton’s journey through the ranks at Barclay’s is interesting. An Australian veteran of JPMorgan, he joined the bank in 2016 alongside current chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan as chief operating officer and the two were initially thought as rivals for the top job. He decided to stay on under Venkat, despite missing out on the chief executive position, and was promoted to head of investment banking.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Julian Hofmann
