LONDON - More than four years after helping Barclays avoid a government bailout at the height of the financial crisis, Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi has sold his stake in the bank.
PCP Gulf Invest 3, an investment vehicle of Sheik Mansour, sold its 758.4 million shares in Barclays by June 20, the bank said in a regulatory filing last month. Shares of Barclays closed at 288.10 pence on June 20, which would have valued the stake at 2.2 billion pounds.
Barclays’ shares gained more than 60 percent since the investment in October 2008.
Under pressure to beef up its capital ratios and eager to avoid asking the government for help, Barclays raised an extra 7.3 billion pounds ($11 billion) in capital from a group of Middle Eastern investors, led by the sovereign wealth funds of Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
At the time, the investors were able to buy new shares in Barclays at a 23 percent discount and warrants that could be converted into shares. The deal was criticized by some investors who had argued that the bank should have offered existing shareholders the chance to participate in any capital increase. Last year, the bank said Britain’s financial regulator was investigating the details of fees linked to the capital raising.
The sale of Sheik Mansour’s stake was reported earlier by The Financial Times.
