arclays may be looking at brighter times again. Photograph: Daniel Hambury/EPA
Barclays has kicked off a massive week for Britain's banks by reporting that it made pre-tax profits of almost £3bn in the first half of 2009 - not quite as much as the City had expected.
Despite the financial turmoil, its investment banking arm Barclays Capital managed to double its profits to £1.047bn - which will probably promptnew outrage over bonuses.
Barclays is also to write off £4.5bn of bad debts, and reported that profits from UK banking dropped by 60% to £268m.
Traders said they expect its shares to drop by around 3% this morning.
Chief executive John Varley said:
"The environment has remained very difficult in 2009 as a consequence of the onset during 2008 of economic recession in most parts of the world in which we operate. But we were nonetheless solidly profitable."
Barclays share price could get a lift from its promise today that shareholders should get a cash dividend before Christmas, but it also warned that its policy of maintaining strong capital ratios meant it would distribute a lower proportion of profits as dividends in future.
Rival HSBC is due to announce its own quarterly results at 9.15am, with analysts expecting a profit of around $5bn (£3bn).
Property firm Hammerson predicted that the UK's property sector was close to recovery, despite seeing its pre-tax losses double in the first half of this year to £818.5m due to falling property values.
Chief executive John Richards is retiring after 10 years running Hammerson, and chairman John Nelson said the company could see signs of recovery:
"In both the UK and France, yields on commercial property increased in the first half of 2009, reflecting the weak economic background, a scarcity of debt finance and a lack of confidence on the part of investors. Having fallen in value for nearly two years, the yield on commercial property is now high relative to the cost of finance, and in recent weeks investor interest has improved. In the UK, property yields for certain assets are no longer increasing."
In other news, data centre operator Telecity reported that profits rose to £13.7m in the first half of 2009, from £10.6m a year ago, thanks to increased demand from internet content providers and telecoms firms.
In the green energy space, Clipper Windpower had trimmed its forecast for the number of wind turbines it will deliver this year to 300, down from 300-325. Chief executive Doug Pertz blamed the recession for hitting demand, especially in America.
"The US market for wind turbines remained depressed throughout the first half of 2009 due to a significant decrease in project finance availability, resulting in a dramatic industry-wide decrease in turbine orders versus the first half of 2008."
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