BARC Barclays Plc

By Sabela Ojea

Barclays PLC reported Thursday a significant decrease in pretax profit for the fourth quarter of 2020 and said that it has suspended its 2019 full-year dividend to preserve capital amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The FTSE-100 listed bank posted a pretax profit of 646 million pounds ($895.5 million) compared with GBP1.10 billion for the year-earlier period. It was expected to post a pretax profit of GBP285 million, taken from a compilation of forecasts provided by Barclays.

The U.K. lender also posted a net profit of GBP220 million compared with GBP681 million for the same period a year earlier. The bank was expected to post a swing to a loss of GBP17 million, according to its compilation of forecasts.

Credit impairment charges stood at GBP492 million, it added, missing views of reaching impairments of GBP689 million for the quarter.

Total income decreased to GBPGBP4.94 billion from GBP5.30 billion for the fourth quarter of 2019. It was anticipated to decline to GBP4.81 billion.

The board has declared a dividend of 1.0 pence a share, down from 3.9 pence a share, and announced that 2019's dividend of 6.0 pence a share has been suspended. The board was expected to declare a dividend of 3.5 pence, according to Barclays' compilation of forecasts.

The bank ended the period with a common equity Tier 1 ratio--a key measure of balance-sheet strength--of 15.1%. It was expected to be 14.7%. It posted a ratio of 13.8% in the year-earlier period.

Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 18, 2021 02:40 ET (07:40 GMT)

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