Barclays Reports $5.3B Profit in 1st Half

Barclays PLC, London, continued to suffer mortgage-related writedowns in the first half of this year, but saw 2.75 billion pounds ($5.34 billion) of group pretax profit during the period. Group chief executive John Varley said the pretax figure was positive in that it represented stable year-over-year income. But the company's net income attributable to shareholders for the first half, 1.72 billion pounds ($3.34 billion), was "acutely disappointing" in that it represented a 33% decline in profit, he said. During the period, Barclays saw more than 2 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) in total charges and impairments that were partially related to U.S. mortgages. U.S. subprime mortgage-related charges and other credit market exposures represented about 1.1 billion pounds ($2.1 billion) of those total writedowns.