U.S. Hedge Fund Unloads Its Entire Stake in Barclays, Report Says

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. hedge fund Tiger Global has sold its entire stake in Barclays Plc, dealing a blow to the bank’s efforts to win support for its turnaround plan, the Financial Times reported.

Tiger, which held a stake of about 2.5 percent in the U.K. bank, started reducing its position last year, before exiting it entirely early this year, the FT reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.

The fund had been one of the strongest supporters of Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley’s plan to bolster the lender’s share price by reviving its investment bank, the FT said. Barclays is also trying to prevent activist investor Edward Bramson from forcing his way on to the board and imposing a shift in strategy that would involve shrinking the investment bank, the report said.

Barclay’s shares have fallen 21 percent over the past 12 months.

Tiger and Barclays declined to comment to the paper. A Tiger spokeswoman declined to comment to Bloomberg when contacted after office hours in the U.S.

Most of the hedge fund’s position was held through swaps, meaning Tiger’s unwinding of its position didn’t show up on Barclays’ share register, the FT reported, citing one of the people familiar with the matter.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Vercoe in Sydney at pvercoe@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Katrina Nicholas at knicholas2@bloomberg.net

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