Proactive Investors - Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is slashing its stake in Barclays PLC (LON:BARC), the UK bank that is coming under pressure from investors to overhaul its strategy and improve its performance, according to reports.
Qatar Holding, a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) that helped bail out Barclays during the global financial crisis, launched the sale on Monday of almost 362 million shares, worth about £510 million, the Financial Times reported.
The QIA is Barclays’ second-biggest shareholder, according to Bloomberg data, and the stock sale is expected to reduce its stake from 5.3% to 2.9%.
The bank is under pressure to improve performance and last week announced it was cutting 900 back office jobs.
Reports also suggested the lender is looking at axing less profitable clients in its investment banking arm.
Shares in Barclays eased 2.6% to 139.34p on Tuesday morning.