Barclays board up for re-election

The board of Barclays has announced a ‘put up or shut up’ plan to quell a shareholder rebellion.

Executive directors at the bank have put themselves up for re-election at the annual shareholders’ meeting in April.

Many shareholders – including several major institutional investors – have expressed their concerns with a £7 billion deal to raise capital involving Qatar Holding and HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Barclays claimed the deal would be beneficial to shareholders as it meant the bank would not be forced to take government cash, which comes with strings attached.

This would enable the bank to remain independent and pay dividends to existing shareholders, according to Barclays, although some also pointed out that it meant there would be no restrictions on paying bonuses to directors.

Shareholders were critical of the terms offered to the Middle Eastern investors and queried why they had not been offered the opportunity to increase their own investment.

Threatened with being voted down on the deal, Barclays is now making £500 million in high-yielding securities available to other institutional investors and has offered shareholders the opportunity to sack the board.

Barclays also said no annual bonuses will be paid to executive directors of the bank for 2008.