U.K – The government has been trying to pressure many banks into accepting government money which in turn meant that should a bank cater to the government, it may use the bank in favor of funding the government investments which would affect the quality and standard of the bank’s integrity as no investment, foreign or local would be safe from government use.
Barclays was suffering the same pressure in October 2008 prompting a Qatar leader who spoke on behalf of the country of Qatar and their investments tied to Barclays, worried that should the government force the bank to bail out and accept government money, that its own investments might join the mandatory government investments as issued and ordered by the British government to use.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad spoke to then Prime Minister Gordon Brown requesting that he try to defuse the pressure the government was forcing on Barclays. Former Barclays Chief Executive John Varley stated that the Qatari PM Hamad was there to gain assurance from the former PM Brown that the interest of the Qatari government with the bank would not suffer misuse or forced mandatory government investment.
None of the Barclays’ board nor investors wanted Barclays to be under the government ownership even when Chief Executive Varley had a bleak meeting with then- chancellor Alistiar Darling.
Barclay became the subject of yet another case taken to high court trial by business woman Amanda Stavely who claims that the bank owes her 1.6 billion GBP.
Varley was in court to contest her claims but she made complaints about the behavior of Barclays during the 2008 financial crisis, more to do with the bosses of the bank and how they negotiated investment deals.
According to Stavely, Barclays agreed to provide an unsecured loan of 2 billion GBP to Qatari investors that was concealed from the market, shareholders and from her own private equity firm, PCP Capital Partners, requesting 1.6 billion GBP in damages.
In recent months, Stavely had been brokering a deal that has aimed for a Saudi consortium to control Newcastle United, stating she introduced Manchester City’s owner Sheikh Mansour to Barclays where he had planned to invest 3.25 billion GBP.
“I have no recollection of any person – including Ms Staveley – indicating to me at any time that PCP was itself a potential principal, nor that it was representing anyone other than Sheikh Mansour or his interests.” said Varley when Amanda Staveley told the court they must pay for her work.
