Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services. Company operates in over 60 countries and employs over 78,000 people.

            Red = 25 day moving average.           Green = 200 day moving average.

Is the proposed merger with ABN holding the price down. Most targets are well above the present price. If the merger fails will the price go up as Barclays itself may become a takeover target?

BARCLAYS TARGET PRICES.
660 Citybank 21/02/07
590 Evolution 28/11/06
650 HSBC 29/11/06
670 SG Securities 29/11/06
760 Dresdner Kleinwort Wasser 26/03/07
770 J P Morgan
750 Credit Suisse 29/11/06
890 Deutsche Bank 21/02/07
750 KBN 28/11/06
846 ING 20/03/07
900 UBS 14/02/07
840 Morgan Stanley
893 Collins Stewart 13/02/07
850 ABN 04/10/06
890 Lehman Brothers 29/11/06 (Overweight 21/02/07)
930 Merrill 09/03/07
930 Bear Stearns 20/12/06
1010 Sanford Bernstein.

Evolution Securities Reduce - 20/02/07
Panmure Gordon Hold 20/02/07
NCB Buy 17/01/07

i am still holding BARC, though i confess without too much enthusiasm ..... impact of a successful BARC bid for ABN is probably mainly factored in ..... if BARC get booted into touch, then i guess the impact on sp should still be positive ..... whether or not BARC is a genuine t/o target as has been mooted, is pretty tenuous ..... if you recollect, we still await the "definite + imminent" bid for ICI!

Agreed cynic.

Copied from "over the road".


Does any one know what time today the Dutch court will decide on the sale of La Salle.




3pm UK time.

I would bet that the judge will allow the sale to go ahead.

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY though.

RBOS is then allowed to make a formal bid after the 7 day rule lapses.

With Egos at play here i think RBS and possibly another suitor who may come out of the woodwork will make a bid for La Salle tomorrow.

If The judge stops the deal then ABN faces a 220 billion dollar law suit.
No company is going to want to merge or buy a company with that hanging over them.

Barclays may then pull out and ABN amro is then left on its own.

Their shareholders will then have to face the consequences of their actions.

Tomorrow i see RBS bidding for La Salle at a price they think Bank Of America wont match.
Bank Of America has already been told that they are over paying for the asset, will they want to go 30% higher. DEont think so.

Barclays share price indicates that the market thinks the judge will rule for the deal and RBOS share price indicates they wont bid.

What will Barclays shre price do once this news comes out.
Fall further or actually rise with the uncertainty out of the way.

Any vies

As you chaps have stated, lots of unanserewered questions on this bank now.

Until some of those questions are answered, one to avoid in my view.

BARC very cative today. We will probably see many days like this until everything is sorted out re ABN merger or takeover/ LaSalle sale.

Has anyone any idea which way BARC price will go today?

No reply so looks as if nobody has a clue what might happen.

That's exactly right Druid2. No-one knows. If they did they'd be very rich people and not populating BBs!

The following is interesting!!

The Dutch commercial court ruled yesterday that the sale of the US bank LaSalle should be put in front of shareholders and it therefore froze the deal with Bank of America. This was a major blow to the agreed merger between Barclays and ABN Amro and has significantly undermined the position of ABN Amro's Chief Executive, Rijkman Groenink to lead negotiations. As we had stated before it did look like the LaSalle sale was arranged to make alternative approaches, to the agreed merger with Barclays, less attractive and was ultimately not in shareholders best interest. But yesterday's Dutch court ruling still took the majority by surprise.

Under the terms of the LaSalle sale the deal was due to close at Midnight on Sunday but it is unclear what relevance this still has. The deadline was thought to be the catalyst for an offer today from the RBS consortium but as of yet there is no announcement. With ABN Amro's management and agreement with Barclays looking undermined and the LaSalle deadline looking null and void perhaps the RBS consortium feels that it has more time and leverage to approach ABN Amro's board with their counter offer. ABN has stated this morning that it will "work constructively" with the RBS consortium.

One thing is for certain; this court ruling has made matters more complicated rather than less. This is for a number of reasons but the main one is that Bank of America is almost certain to file a claim in the US for significant damages against ABN Amro for breaching the sale contract. Bank of America has stated that the LaSalle deal is a 'binding contract' and that it intends to take 'all necessary steps to protect its legal rights'. How this plays out is likely to be crucial to who gets ABN Amro.

What is also clear is that as the probability of Barclays merger increases its share price falls back and vice versa. Barclays share price rose by 3-4% in late trading yesterday after the Dutch court decision was announced, as a failed merger will mean it is more likely to become prey itself. With RBS the share price correlation with events is lower as it, so far, has not tabled its offer. The market is waiting to see how any RBS consortium offer were to be structured and to assess the business and regulatory risks associated with the unprecedented deconstruction of such a large bank.

On a fundamental basis the stocks both remain cheap with Barclays and RBS trading on 10.0x and 9.1x 2007 earnings respectively. Our current recommendation on both stocks is Buy. However, we stress these recommendations are under review as we recognise that the risk of holding these stocks has increased markedly. It is likely that the share price of the bank that has to walk away empty handed will benefit from a marked uplift in its share price and it is not inconceivable that this could happen to both banks if a successful third party were to enter the fray. Things should become clearer in the next week with the offer expected to be announced by the RBS consortium and, significantly, the legal response from Bank of America regarding LaSalle.

Price on chart above at the moment 714. Just seen this on Yahoo finance:-
"The market is slightly oversold and without a clearly defined short term trend. A price recovery to the 732.75 level can as well be expected."

This thread has been very quiet bearing in mind all the banking news recently. BARC seems to be recovering - 639 today much better that the 570's some days ago.

any thoughts on this one?

With the current debt uncertainty I would not touch any of the banks until all the bad news is out. How long that will be I don't think anyone knows.

If you own some well I'll leave the decision to you -):

After the UBS announcement today I agree - don't think everyone's come clean yet. I'm currently 20 down, so easy enough to get out with min loss...

Looks like a bloodbath for the banks. Not seen a heatmap like it before, all the \'banking big names\' in the -2+% range whilst the oilies, including BP, BG and TLW are motoring.

I’ve held BARC for years some thing tells me I should be adding at this price.

well I'd 'expect' a swing of some 30-40% on some high risk shares, but many of the banks have lost at least 30% since the beginning of the year (not including the NRK type disasters). Might be worth considering topping up on a few for next year.

An impressive day for Barclays today with a good climb against a backdrop of another sea of red on the markets. The news that consumer bad debts haven't reason must be a relief to many.

barc a steal at 510 Pe 10.17 div 4.24%
to match analyst expectations
purchase of own shares for cancellation
takeover possible china india russia america awash with money looking to get in.
HAS TO BE A STEAL