Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of Barclays PLC, plans to lay off 2.4%, or about 600, of its global staff this week, according to sources close to the matter.
The unit, which has roughly 25,000 workers, has struggled in recent months with a dearth of deals and sluggish trading activity. In the third quarter, BarCap posted 765 million pounds in pretax profit, its worst quarterly showing since early 2009. Its revenue in the three months was down 24% from the year-earlier period.
Early last month, the bank told hundreds of its U.K. employees that they would be cut via a consultation process, wherein a company is legally required to tell fired employees three months in advance of a layoff.
A New York-based worker at the bank said management had booked a number of conference rooms for a round of announcements earlier this week. But those reservations were canceled when a snowstorm dumped about nine inches of snow on Manhattan Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
A lot of this is in FO.
Did anyone get the selection for this round of internships strangely stopped? I did. Strangely is my opinion though.
I know for fact that for some areas they closed applications earlier than the listed date. Could be coincidence though.
Ohh Bushels now that you mention it, yeah. Randomly got notified my candidacy in the sophomore SA Generation Next thing was terminated, random date far before they said notifications would be going out.
I've been seeing a lot of talk about 2011 being a booming year for M&A though, insight on why this is happening now?
Good to hear I wasn't the only one with somewhat random closure.
I also heard M&A is looking up 2011. It'd be interesting to find out.
From what I've seen, Barcap appears to be one of the lower-performing segments of the Bargroup. I haven't looked into the reason for this though. US and EMEA tables put barcap still top 10 generally deal-wise by $ value. I don't think its a scale issue. At a glance, they've been relatively aggressive since 07, apparently even hiring through gfc. This could be a run-on effect of deals that fell short of what was anticipated. Could also be from cost-cutting down the line from the two new board hires in the segment around Q409... one from GS, one from Fidelity. But don't know their histories so stabbing in the air atm. Furthermore I dunno which part of Barcap is getting chopped. I haven't looked at their news since they cut my app a month ago.
If you're interviewing, I wouldn't mention this for two reasons:
1) "Bargroup" is not a term 2) Even if it was, it's absolutely incorrect. Barclays Capital accounts for the majority of Barclays profits. Check the filings.
^ why would that be strange given that they are going to fire 600 people?
might not have been the only reason
There's nothing strange about this. All IBs trim staff yearly in underperforming areas
I was under that impression that the "boom" of 2011 for M&A was more so in the MM space. Could be wrong on that but that's been the talk in my neck of the woods.
These still happened yesterday, unfortunately.
In the NY office ? Do you know which groups specifically ?
How likely is this to affect US layoffs? I Summered @ Barcap and will be returning for full-time (Tech); should I be concerned? This is a little frightening...
Yes, in NYC. It was all across the board. A bunch in global finance (which includes dcm/ecm/lev fin/etc.) and in coverage.
HS, do you know if they're done with the layoffs ? my roommate works there and I need to know if I'm going to have to look for a new apt soon.
No clue if they're done or not. I would think it'd take more than 1 day...
Allright, thanks.
They're not done in NYC. Bunch of layoffs across the IBD yesterday and today.
Yep. Just found out. This sucks.
Would this affect Hong Kong office or Asia Pacific offices in general at all?
probably
Thanks for the info serendipity, genuinely helped out a friend of mine. SB to you. Threads like this add a heck of a lot of value to WSO.
hmm...have a superday with Barcap HK this weekend...should I pretend I'm oblivious to this?
I would bring it up with someone you are comfortable with. You want to show that you really know the company and if you are wasting your time interviewing.
only back office in HK, front office is being aggressively expanded. they just hired a bunch of M&A bankers from MS
Second this obs. Barclay is giving out ridicously high compensation package to 2nd MBAs (don't ask the number, but it's just above, above HK avg) and HK just started their biz so they are pretty safe
Had two rounds a couple weeks ago and heard nothing since.. this makes more sense.
appears research got hit pretty hard as well.
Did trading get whacked too? Would think the fixed income guys would be.
@Omoba: much of these layoffs is within global finance though...it seems like if they're trimming underperforming areas they should be axing people in S&T as people above have mentioned.
Would now be a bad time to make an initial outreach to someone in Barcap IBD (assuming you share a solid commonality)?
i'm curious about this too - in the same situation
You might get a bounceback..
Well, of course that is a possibility. I'm assuming that doesn't happen...any serious answers?
Barclays just over-hired. While ~10% were layed off, it was really only the very bottom performers. Everyone is going on as if nothing happened, as should you. Most of IBD is still expanding, and many groups are being aggressive about it. I wouldn't bring it up in an interview, and I also wouldn't fret about reaching out to someone.
BarCap is shitty outside of energy anyways.
BarCap is shitty outside of energy anyways.
Agree - shitty outfit trying hard to be a big league player....
Funny, guys.
Barcap Layoffs & No Bonus! (Originally Posted: 01/19/2011)
See article below. Seems Barclays has been suffering lately and as a result is reporting layoffs pretty often. I've signed for full-time in their Tech practice and was wondering if I should be concerned about this?
Link to article: http://www.vault.com/wps/portal/usa/blogs/entry-detail?blog_id=1280&ent…
In a move that's surely not going to receive much sympathy on Main Street but will likely send more than a little fear into the hearts and minds of young bankers on Wall Street, Barclays Capital yesterday canned numerous junior bankers, sending them into the lines of the unemployed without something very important -- their bonuses.
That's right, BarCap folks were reportedly fired days before they would've found out what their bonus numbers would be for their efforts in 2010.
Now, understandably, if you don't work in investment banking, you might be saying, 'Whatever, man. It was a bonus and a bonus isn't a salary but something you get if you go above and beyond, doing a superb job, and then only if your firm has a good year and isn't some bloodsucking financial institution making money only because governments bailed them out. And, anyway, isn't Barclays mostly made up of ex-Lehman Brothers bankers? That's what I thought. Big f-n deal.'
But, also understandably, if you work in investment banking, you know that not only did Barclays not receive a government bailout but also that, on Wall Street, a bonus is not really a bonus but historically (until the crisis of '07-'08) has been merely another part, albeit a large part, of your expected take-home pay for your handing over your life to a handful of men (and, in one or two cases, women) in blue and gray suits.
In other words, you know that those fired were screwed. And you're hoping that this is an anomaly, and not a precedent.
capitalist institution exploits workforce? Crazy world we live in.
i think the problem of the banking world (one of) is the expectation of a bonus. So your salary is socially acceptable but bonus isn't, plus its kept off written records so only you and the person that sets it knows it. I understand where you're coming from, but it reads a bit like the Icelandic 8% interest rates. No such thing as free money.
personally, i think they are the barcap fallguy for the year when bonuses are paid. last year was diamond and he wont be so keen to do that again. Being in a prop firm i'm not overly concerned.
eh, shit happens.
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